Apple Inc., Cupertino US

Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA US

Patent application number

Description

Published

20130019097

Method and Apparatus for Securing Communication Between a Mobile Node and a Network - In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a method and apparatus is presented for securely negotiating a session key between a mobile node and a network node, such as a first hop IP router. A session key is encoded using asymmetric encryption. The encrypted session key is then communicated to the first hop IP router for later use. In accordance with another teaching of the present invention, the session key is then used by the mobile node and a first hop IP router to authenticate a message. Lastly, in accordance with the third teaching of the present invention, a standardized protocol is used to securely negotiate the session key between the mobile node and the first hop IP router.

01-17-2013

20130021118

Microstrip and stripline transmission lines for electronic devices - Transmission lines for electronic devices such as microstrip and stripline transmission lines may be provided that include patterned conductive lines and a conductive paint in the patterned conductive lines. The transmission lines may include one or more planar ground conductors. The ground conductors may include conductive lines arranged in a crosshatch pattern with spaces between the conductive lines. The ground conductors may also include conductive paint in spaces within the crosshatched pattern. The ground conductors may form one or more ground planes for the transmission lines.

01-24-2013

20130024329

USER SUPPLIED AND REFINED TAGS - Managing online content via user supplied and/or refined tagging is disclosed. In some embodiments, a selection of an item available from an online store is received, and one or more tags to be associated with the item are received from a member of an online community comprising users of the online store. In some embodiments, an indication of a degree of usefulness of a tag is received from a member of an online community, and an attribute of the tag is updated to reflect the indication.

01-24-2013

20130024593

SOURCE PACKET BRIDGE - A communication function between ports on a node that does not require a common time base to be distributed across the network is disclosed. A data stream received over a first port is placed on an interface between nodes using the time base of the first port; a second port samples the data stream on the interface and timestamps it using the time base of the second port. The data stream is timestamped by the second port and packetized before transmitted to the second node to another bridge or device. Alternatively, the first port extracts a time stamp from the data stream and calculates an offset using a cycle timer value from the bus connected to the first port. The offset is added to the cycle timer value on the bus connected to the second port and used to timestamp the data stream.

PROCESSING VECTORS USING WRAPPING SHIFT INSTRUCTIONS IN THE MACROSCALAR ARCHITECTURE - Embodiments of a system and a method in which a processor may execute instructions that cause the processor to receive an input vector and a control vector are disclosed. The executed instructions may also cause the processor to perform a shift operation on another input vector dependent upon the input vector and the control vector.

Method and Apparatus for Securing Communication Between a Mobile Node and a Network - In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a method and apparatus is presented for securely negotiating a session key between a mobile node and a network node, such as a first hop IP router. A session key is encoded using asymmetric encryption. The encrypted session key is then communicated to the first hop IP router for later use. In accordance with another teaching of the present invention, the session key is then used by the mobile node and a first hop IP router to authenticate a message. Lastly, in accordance with the third teaching of the present invention, a standardized protocol is used to securely negotiate the session key between the mobile node and the first hop IP router.

01-24-2013

20130027297

3D REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM EMPLOYING ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE POSITION DETECTION - The present invention can include three-dimensional remote control systems that can detect an absolute location to which a remote control is pointing in first and second orthogonal axes and an absolute position of the remote control in a third orthogonal axis. Remote control systems of the present invention can employ absolute position detection with relative position detection. Absolute position detection can indicate an initial absolute position of the remote control and relative position detection can indicate changes in the position of the remote control. By combining absolute and relative position detection, remote control systems of the present invention can track remote controls more precisely than systems that only employ absolute position detection. The present invention also can include methods and apparatus for zooming in and out of an image shown on a display based on the absolute position of the remote control in the third axis.

01-31-2013

20130027303

Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Moving On-Screen Objects Without Using a Cursor - An electronic device with a touch screen display: detects a single finger contact on the touch screen display; creates a touch area that corresponds to the single finger contact; determines a representative point within the touch area; determines if the touch area overlaps an object displayed on the touch screen display, which includes determining if one or more portions of the touch area other than the representative point overlap the object; connects the object with the touch area if the touch area overlaps the object, where connecting maintains the overlap of the object and the touch area; after connecting the object with the touch area, detects movement of the single finger contact; determines movement of the touch area that corresponds to movement of the single finger contact; and moves the object connected with the touch area in accordance with the determined movement of the touch area.

01-31-2013

20130027427

Associating Digital Images with Waypoints - Methods and systems are disclosed for identifying waypoints. In one aspect, a method performed by an application executing on a computer system, includes receiving at least two sets of digital images including a first set of digital images for which image acquisition times are known and a second set of digital images for which image acquisition times and image acquisition locations are known. The method further includes overlaying waypoint identifiers over a map image. The waypoint identifiers correspond to geographical coordinates and to time acquisitions of one or more of the second set of images. Furthermore, the method includes receiving from a user associated with the application a waypoint selection of the overlaid waypoint identifiers and one or more image selections of the first set of images. In response to receiving the selections, the method includes associating the selected ones of the first set of images with the selected waypoint, and generating a trip-descriptor including the first set of images associated with the overlaid waypoint identifiers.

01-31-2013

20130027897

PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD RADIO-FREQUENCY SHIELDING STRUCTURES - Electrical components such as integrated circuits may be mounted on a printed circuit board. To prevent the electrical components from being subjected to electromagnetic interference, a radio-frequency shielding structure may be mounted over the electrical components. The radio-frequency shielding structure may be formed from a printed circuit that includes a ground plane such as a flex circuit or rigid printed circuit board that includes at least one blanket layer of metal. The printed circuit board to which the electrical components are mounted may include a recess in which the electrical components are mounted. Additional components may be mounted to the interior and exterior surface of the radio-frequency shielding structure. The radio-frequency shielding structure may be formed from a flex circuit that has slits at its corners to accommodate folding.

01-31-2013

20130028155

MAC Packet Data Unit Construction for Wireless System - A method for wireless communication using MAC PDUs. The method includes determining one or more characteristics of a service flow and selecting on the basis of the one or more characteristics a MAC PDU header type among a plurality of MAC PDU header types. The service flow data is encapsulated in MAC PDUs with a header of the selected type. The MAC PDUs with the encapsulated service flow data are then wirelessly transmitted. Also, a method for communication between a Base Station (BS) and a Subscriber Station (SS). The method includes generating at the BS a plurality of MAC PDU packets with a payload component holding service flow data and a plurality of MAC PDU packets without payload component, carrying control information. The method also includes transmitting wirelessly the MAC PDU packets with the payload component and the MAC PDU packets with the control information to the SS.

01-31-2013

20130028170

RELAYING SYSTEM AND METHOD WITH PARTNER RELAYS AND SELECTIVE TRANSMISSION - Partner relay systems and methods are provided in which relaying is performed by a pair of partner relays. Signals received from a base station are translated by a first of the pair of partner relays to a different transmission resource for communication between the pair of partner relays, and then upon reception by a second of the pair of partner relays, the signal is translated back to the original transmission resource and re-transmitted towards the receiver.

01-31-2013

20130028197

Method for Updating and Managing Synchronization Identifier by using Release Messages or Status Request and Response - A method for communicating additional network information using a synchronization identifier is presented. A synchronization identifier is defined. The synchronization identifier is used for the purpose of synchronizing communication between a Mobile Station (MS) and a network. In addition, the synchronization identifier is used to define additional functionality in the wireless network. As such, the synchronization identifier may be used to communicate information about wireless services and/or wireless components between the MS and the network.

01-31-2013

20130028233

Allocating Resources in a Frequency-Time Space to Mobile Station Data - To allocate resources in an orthogonal frequency domain multiple access (OFDMA) system, two-dimensional rectangular regions are assigned in a frequency-time space to data bursts associated with mobile stations. At least one data burst does not fit in an available space in the frequency-time space is determined. In response to the determining, the assigned two-dimensional rectangular regions are reshaped.

01-31-2013

20130031302

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING THE STATUS OF MEMORY LOCATIONS IN A NON-VOLATILE MEMORY - Systems and methods are provided for storing data in a portion of a non-volatile memory (“NVM”) such that the status of the NVM portion can be determined with high probability on a subsequent read. An NVM interface, which may receive write commands to store user data in the NVM, can store a fixed predetermined sequence (“FPS”) with the user data. The FPS may ensure that a successful read operation on a NVM portion is not misinterpreted as a failed read operation or as an erased NVM portion. For example, if the NVM returns an all-zero vector when a read request fails, the FPS can include at least one “1” or one “0”, as appropriate, to differentiate between successful and unsuccessful read operations. In some embodiments, the FPS may also be used to differentiate between disturbed data, which passes an error correction check, and correct data.

01-31-2013

20130033504

Seamless Display Migration - Exemplary embodiments of methods, apparatuses, and systems for seamlessly migrating a user visible display stream sent to a display device from one rendered display stream to another rendered display stream are described. For one embodiment, mirror video display streams are received from both a first graphics processing unit (GPU) and a second GPU, and the video display stream sent to a display device is switched from the video display stream from the first GPU to the video display stream from the second GPU, wherein the switching occurs during a blanking interval for the first GPU that overlaps with a blanking interval for the second GPU.

02-07-2013

20130033506

MULTI-CONTEXT GRAPHICS PROCESSING - A method of managing multiple contexts for a single mode display includes receiving a plurality of tasks from one or more applications and determining respective contexts for each task, each context having a range of memory addresses. The method also includes selecting one context for output to the single mode display

02-07-2013

20130033983

Access Category Enforcement in Wireless Local Area Networks - The present invention provides a control function in an access point, switch, or like node on a wireless local area network. The control function operates to ensure frames transmitted by a user terminal are transmitted using an appropriate transmission priority scheme. The control function will assist and provide an appropriate priority level to the user terminal. Frames transmitted from the user terminal are passed through the control function, which will analyze priority level information provided in the frames to determine if the frames were transmitted using the appropriate transmission priority scheme. An enforcement action may be taken in response to identifying frames that were not transmitted using the appropriate transmission priority scheme.

02-07-2013

20130033986

Quality of Service Control in Multiple Hop Wireless Communication Environments - One or more relay stations may be employed along a wireless communication access path between an ingress station and an egress station. A logical communication tunnel is established between the ingress and egress stations through any number of intermediate relay stations to handle session flows of PDUs. As PDUs arrive, the ingress station may determine and add scheduling information to the PDUs before they are delivered to the downstream intermediate relay stations or egress stations. The scheduling information is used by the downstream stations to schedule the PDUs for further delivery. The scheduling information may also be used by the egress station to schedule the PDUs for delivery. The scheduling information added to the PDU by the ingress station bears on a QoS class associated with the PDU, a deadline for the egress station to deliver the PDU, or a combination thereof.

02-07-2013

20130034049

Modulation Division Multiple Access - The present invention employs hierarchical modulation to simultaneously transmit information on different modulation layers using a carrier RF signal. Initially, first data to be transmitted is assigned to a first modulation layer and second data is assigned to a second modulation layer. In one embodiment of the present invention, the first and second data are assigned based on reliability criteria. The first and second modulation layers are hierarchical modulation layers of the carrier RF signal. Once assigned, the first data is transmitted using the first modulation layer of the carrier RF signal and the second data is transmitted using the second modulation layer of the carrier RF signal. In one embodiment of the present invention, information may be transmitted to one end user using one modulation layer, and information may be transmitted to a different end user using a different modulation layer.

02-07-2013

20130034075

MAC Packet Data Unit Construction for Wireless System - A method for wireless communication using MAC PDUs. The method includes determining one or more characteristics of a service flow and selecting on the basis of the one or more characteristics a MAC PDU header type among a plurality of MAC PDU header types. The service flow data is encapsulated in MAC PDUs with a header of the selected type. The MAC PDUs with the encapsulated service flow data are then wirelessly transmitted. Also, a method for communication between a Base Station (BS) and a Subscriber Station (SS). The method includes generating at the BS a plurality of MAC PDU packets with a payload component holding service flow data and a plurality of MAC PDU packets without payload component, carrying control information. The method also includes transmitting wirelessly the MAC PDU packets with the payload component and the MAC PDU packets with the control information to the SS.

02-07-2013

20130034188

Signal Transmitter Linearization - A linearizer for a non-linear transmitter includes a tap delay line that provides samples of an input signal at selected times. At least one Volterra tap is coupled to the tape delay line. The Volterra tap includes a lookup table representation of a polynomial. An adaptive controller is coupled to the Volterra tap for modifying values in the lookup table.

02-07-2013

20130035039

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRIGGERING NETWORK DEVICE DISCOVERY - A compass output in a first portable electronic device is monitored as the first device and a second electronic device come closer to each other. It is determined, by a process running in the first device, whether a magnetic field signature that is based on the monitored compass output is associated with a previously defined type of electronic device with which a network device discovery process is to be conducted. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

02-07-2013

20130035047

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ANTENNA ISOLATION-DEPENDENT COEXISTENCE IN WIRELESS SYSTEMS - Methods and apparatus for selectively switching one or more antennas in a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antenna array so as to mitigate interference with another RF interface within the same space-constrained device, based on radio frequency isolation. In one embodiment, the MIMO interface comprises a WLAN interface having a 2×2 or 3×3 array of antennae which are placed in a wireless device in an asymmetric fashion with respect to the antenna of the second interface, and the other interface comprises a PAN (e.g., Bluetooth) interface operating in an overlapping frequency band (e.g., ISM band). When both interfaces are operating, interference is mitigated through selectively switching off one or more of the MIMO antennae, and using the remaining antenna(e) having the best isolation from the Bluetooth antennae. This approach allows simultaneous operation of both interferences without significant degradation to user experience or the operation of either interface, and may also provide power savings critical to mobile device battery longevity.

02-07-2013

20130035091

Transmission Method and Related Base Station - The invention relates to transmission from a base station to a receiver, the base station comprising first radiating means arranged for transmitting according to an antenna pattern with respect to the receiver and further comprising second radiating means arranged for transmitting according to the same antenna pattern as the first radiating means with respect to the receiver, the transmissions of the first and second radiating means being time shifted by a determined duration.

MOUSE WITH IMPROVED INPUT MECHANISMS USING TOUCH SENSORS - A mouse having improved input methods and mechanisms is disclosed. The mouse is configured with touch sensing areas capable of generating input signals. The touch sensing areas may for example be used to differentiate between left and right clicks in a single button mouse. The mouse may further be configured with force sensing areas capable of generating input signals. The force sensing areas may for example be positioned on the sides of the mouse so that squeezing the mouse generates input signals. The mouse may further be configured with a jog ball capable of generating input signals. The mouse may additionally be configured with a speaker for providing audio feedback when the various input devices are activated by a user.

02-14-2013

20130038609

Generating a Three-Dimensional Model Using a Portable Electronic Device Recording - Systems and methods are provided for navigating a three-dimensional model using deterministic movement of an electronic device. An electronic device can load and provide an initial display of a three dimensional model (e.g., of an environment or of an object). As the user moves the electronic device, motion sensing components can detect the device movement and adjust the displayed portion of the three-dimensional model to reflect the movement of the device. By walking with the device in the user's real environment, a user can virtually navigate a representation of a three-dimensional environment. In some embodiments, a user can record an object or environment using an electronic device, and tag the recorded images or video with movement information describing the movement of the device during the recording. The recorded information can then be processed with the movement information to generate a three-dimensional model of the recorded environment or object.

02-14-2013

20130038771

IMAGE CAPTURING DEVICE HAVING CONTINUOUS IMAGE CAPTURE - Methods, devices, and systems for continuous image capturing are described herein. In one embodiment, a method includes continuously capturing a sequence of images with an image capturing device. The method may further include storing a predetermined number of the sequence of images in a buffer. The method may further include receiving a user request to capture an image. In response to the user request, the method may further include automatically selecting one of the buffered images based on an exposure time of one of the buffered images. The sequence of images is captured prior to or concurrently with receiving the user request.

02-14-2013

20130039432

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MASKING VISUAL COMPRESSION ARTIFACTS IN DECODED VIDEO STREAMS - A technique is provided for processing decoded video data to mask visual compression artifacts resulting from video compression. In accordance with this technique, a hardware block is provided for generating and adding random noise to the decoded video stream. In one embodiment, a random number is generated for each pixel of the decoded video data and compared against one or more threshold values to determine a threshold range. In such an embodiment, a noise addend value is selected based upon the threshold comparison and summed with the current pixel. While the present technique may not eliminate the compression artifacts, the addition of random noise renders the compression artifacts less noticeable to the human eye and, therefore, more aesthetically pleasing to a viewer.

02-14-2013

20130039508

AUDIO JACK WITH INCLUDED MICROPHONE - A connector for receiving a cylindrical plug includes a body defining a plug aperture and a cavity for receiving the cylindrical plug. A plurality of electrical contacts in communication with the cavity make electrical connections with the cylindrical plug and retain the cylindrical plug. A microphone is coupled to the body such that the plug aperture and the cavity provide an acoustic path to the microphone. The microphone may be at an end of the connector opposite the plug aperture or on a side of the connector adjacent the plug aperture. The connector allows a microphone to be added to a device, such as a mobile telephone, without the need for an additional external aperture. The microphone in the connector may operate with a second microphone and processing electronics in the device to provide audio processing functions such as noise cancellation or audio beamforming.

02-14-2013

20130039601

Method and Apparatus for Managing Image-Processing Operations - Embodiments of the present invention provide a system for performing image conversion operations. The system starts by receiving a request from a client for one or more pixel buffers containing a pixel-formatted, cropped, geometrically transformed, and/or color matched version of an image representation. The system then determines if a provider can provide the one or more pixel buffers. If so, the system calls the provider to generate the one or more pixel buffers containing the pixel-formatted, cropped, geometrically transformed, and/or color matched version of the image representation. Otherwise, the system calls the provider to generate one or more intermediate pixel buffers, generates a sequence of converters for converting the one or more intermediate pixel buffers, and calls the sequence of converters to generate the one or more pixel buffers containing the pixel-formatted, cropped, geometrically transformed, and/or color matched version of the image representation.

02-14-2013

20130041513

THERMAL MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES IN AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE - A thermal manager has a digital filter whose input is to receive raw temperature values from a sensor and whose output is to provide processed or filtered temperature values according to a filter function that correlates temperature at the sensor with temperature at another location in the device. The thermal manager has a look-up table that further correlates temperature at the sensor with temperature at the other location. The look-up table contains a list of processed temperature sensor values, and/or a list of temperatures representing the temperature at the other location, and their respective power consumption change commands. The thermal manager accesses the look-up table using selected, filtered temperature values, to identify their respective power consumption change commands. The latter are then evaluated and may be applied, to mitigate a thermal at the other location. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

02-14-2013

20130041903

Categorization of Digital Media Based on Media Characteristics - Digital media categorization can include receiving information including a plurality of media objects and a metadata tag descriptive of at least a first media object; comparing the first media object with a second media object; and selectively associating the first media object's metadata tag with the second media object based on a result of the comparison. Each media object can include a digital image.

02-14-2013

20130042074

Prefetch Unit - In one embodiment, a processor comprises a prefetch unit coupled to a data cache. The prefetch unit is configured to concurrently maintain a plurality of separate, active prefetch streams. Each prefetch stream is either software initiated via execution by the processor of a dedicated prefetch instruction or hardware initiated via detection of a data cache miss by one or more load/store memory operations. The prefetch unit is further configured to generate prefetch requests responsive to the plurality of prefetch streams to prefetch data in to the data cache.

02-14-2013

20130044714

CHANNEL RANK FEEDBACK IN MULTIPLE-INPUT MULTIPLE-OUTPUT COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS - Embodiments of a system and methodology are disclosed for aperiodic (i.e., non-periodic) feedback of channel-side information, such as channel rank information, to a base station by having the receiver/UE initiate the feedback instead of using a scheduled feedback approach. The autonomous feedback of channel-side information may use one of several different types of physical channel structures for uplink scheduling requests, such as those being discussed for inclusion in the emerging LTE platform standard.

02-21-2013

20130044719

Dynamic Allocation of Host IP Addresses - The present invention facilitates dynamic allocation of home IP addresses for a mobile node, when it is roaming away from a home network and supported by a foreign network. After the mobile node obtains a care-of address from the foreign network, a stateful or stateless configuration process is used to dynamically allocate a home IP address for the mobile node. In the stateful approach, a binding update message is used to request a home IP address for the mobile node from its home agent. In a stateless embodiment, the mobile node will create a home IP address, which is sent to the home agent for verification via the binding update message. The home agent will receive the home IP address in the binding update message, verify the home IP address, and send acknowledgement of the verification, assuming the home IP address is verified, to the mobile node.

02-21-2013

20130044883

TECHNIQUES FOR PRESENTING SOUND EFFECTS ON A PORTABLE MEDIA PLAYER - Improved techniques for presenting sound effects at a portable media device are disclosed. The sound effects can be output as audio sounds to an internal speaker, an external speaker, or both. In addition, the audio sounds for the sound effects can be output together with other audio sounds pertaining to media assets (e.g., audio tracks being played). In one embodiment, the sound effects can serve to provide auditory feedback to a user of the portable media device. A user interface can facilitate a user's selection of sound effect usages, types or characteristics.

02-21-2013

20130045762

COMMON BUS DESIGN FOR A TFT-LCD DISPLAY - Embodiments of the present invention provide for a FFS TFT LCD with a high refresh rate without limiting the aperture of individual pixels. More specifically, embodiments of the invention provide for the use of common bus lines to reduce the effective resistance of the common electrode and to therefore allow for higher refresh rates of the display. Furthermore, the common bus lines can be positioned in such a manner so that they do not further reduce the aperture of the display. More specifically, the common bus lines can be positioned above or below existing elements of the display that are already opaque. Thus, adding the common bus lines need not reduce the aperture. The above can be achieved by, for example, placing the common bus lines above or below existing non-transparent lines, such as gate lines or data lines.

02-21-2013

20130046734

CONSISTENT BACKUP OF ELECTRONIC INFORMATION - Systems and methods are provided for performing backup operations while a user is using a device. In one implementation, a method is provided. A backup operation of data including a plurality of related items is initiated. Modifications to one or more items of the plurality of related items are monitored for during the backup operation. The backup operation is completed. If a modification occurred to one or more items, a second backup operation is performed for the modified items.

02-21-2013

20130046938

QoS-Aware Scheduling - In an embodiment, a memory controller includes multiple ports. Each port may be dedicated to a different type of traffic. In an embodiment, quality of service (QoS) parameters may be defined for the traffic types, and different traffic types may have different QoS parameter definitions. The memory controller may be configured to schedule operations received on the different ports based on the QoS parameters. In an embodiment, the memory controller may support upgrade of the QoS parameters when subsequent operations are received that have higher QoS parameters, via sideband request, and/or via aging of operations. In an embodiment, the memory controller is configured to reduce emphasis on QoS parameters and increase emphasis on memory bandwidth optimization as operations flow through the memory controller pipeline.

02-21-2013

20130046978

REPLICATION SERVER SELECTION METHOD - A method for a client computer to find a network address of a server computer by searching for the network address using at a backup search procedure if the address of the server computer cannot be identified using a primary search procedure. The primary and backup search procedures can be performed in parallel and multiple backup search procedures can be performed to identify the address of the server computer. Alternatively, the primary and backup search procedures can be performed in serial wherein the backup search procedure is performed only when the primary search procedure does not identify the address of the server computer.

02-21-2013

20130046984

Establishing a Secured Communication Session - The present invention relates to a method for establishing a secured communication session in a communication system between a user using an untrusted device and a server. According to the present invention the user first obtains an authentication algorithm and an encryption algorithm and then creates a session key. Next the user obtains a public key of the server and sends a personal identity number to the server for authentication by using the authentication algorithm, the personal identity number being encrypted by using the encryption algorithm and the public key of the server. The user also sends the session key to the server for encrypting purpose between the user and the server, the session key being encrypted by using the encryption algorithm and the public key of the server.

02-21-2013

20130047167

EFFICIENT MECHANISM FOR TERMINATING APPLICATIONS - An efficient mechanism for terminating applications of a data processing system is described herein. In one embodiment, in response to a request for exiting from an operating environment of a data processing system, an operating system examines an operating state associated with an application running within the operating environment, where the operating state is stored at a predetermined memory location shared between the operating system and the application. The operating system immediately terminates the application if the operating state associated with the application indicates that the application is safe for a sudden termination. Otherwise, the operating system defers terminating the application if the operating state associated with the application indicates that the application is unsafe for the sudden termination. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.

02-21-2013

20130050214

Light Source Detection from Synthesized Objects - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining a location relative to an object and a type of a light source that illuminated the object when the image was captured, are described. A method performed by a process executing on a computer system includes identifying an object of interest in a digital image. The method further includes projecting at least a portion of the digital image corresponding to the object of interest onto a three dimensional (3D) model that includes a polygon-mesh corresponding to the object's shape. The method further includes determining one or more properties of a light source that illuminated the object in the digital image at an instant that the image was captured based at least in part on a characteristic of one or more polygons in the 3D model onto which the digital image portion was projected.

02-28-2013

20130050252

Brushing Tools for Digital Image Adjustments - Among other things, methods, systems and computer program products are disclosed for applying an image adjustment to an image. A choice of image adjustments is presented to a user of a data processing device. A user selection is received from among the choice of image adjustments at least one image adjustment that a user desires to apply to an area of interest of the image. The user selected image adjustment is applied to an entirety of an image. A preview of the user selected image adjustment applied to the entirety of the image is displayed. Also, user input comprising user selection of a brushing application is received. The user selected image adjustment is applied to the area of interest of the image and a remainder of the image is restored to a pre-adjustment state using the user selection of the brushing application.

02-28-2013

20130051367

Support for Continuity of Tunnel Communications for Mobile Nodes Having Multiple Care of Addressing - The present invention solves communication disruption problems during the hand-off transition period by using a pre-handoff registration of a new foreign agent on behalf of the mobile node The pre-handoff registration message should: (1) identify itself as a pre-hand off registration message, (2) indicate direction of traffic for the pre-handoff registration time period, and (3) specify a lifetime or time period when the pre-handoff registration request will continue to be considered valid The local mobility anchor will accept traffic using the pre-handoff registration care-of address depending on the directionality indicator, but the communication traffic to or from the mobile node will not be disrupted during the transition period. Because the care-of address for the mobile node on the new foreign network can be used to direct communication traffic to or from the mobile node during this transition time period, no disruption of service will be encountered.

02-28-2013

20130054732

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SEAMLESSLY ACCESSING REMOTELY STORED FILES - A system and method by which users via programs on one computer may seamlessly access files remotely stored on other computers that run a well known file access protocol. An operating system extension and an application level network access program are provided. The operating system extension receives file system requests for remote files from the operating system that were issued according to a well known application program interface. The operating system extension forwards the remote file system request to the network access program. The network access program reformats the request according to a well known application level network protocol extension and sends it over a network to a remote computer system.

02-28-2013

20130055191

Method and Software Tool for Analyzing and Reducing the Failure Rate of an Integrated Circuit - A software tool and method for analyzing the reliability or failure rate of an integrated circuit (IC) are disclosed. The IC may include a plurality of circuit designs, and the software tool and method may aid a designer of the IC in determining a reliability rating of the IC based on reliability ratings of transistors or other circuit devices used in the circuit designs. In particular, the IC may include one or more circuit designs that have multiple instances within the IC (i.e., the same circuit design is instantiated multiple times), and the software tool and method may take into account the multiple instances when determining the reliability rating of the IC.

02-28-2013

20130058355

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ENSURING COMPATIBILITY ON A HIGH PERFORMANCE SERIAL BUS - A data communications system is disclosed having at least one Legacy cloud coupled to at least one Beta cloud. The system further having at least one BOSS node and at least one border node. A method for ensuring compatibility is disclosed comprising determining when the BOSS node is idle, determining whether the last packet transmitted by any border node was an Alpha format packet if the BOSS node is idle, and unlocking the Legacy cloud if the last packet transmitted by the border node was not an Alpha format packet.

03-07-2013

20130058590

Detecting Image Detail Level - One aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented in a method for detecting a detail level of an image including receiving an original image, transforming the original image to generate one or more blurred images, deriving image differences corresponding to ranges of detail frequency of the original image based, at least in part, on the one or more blurred images and the original image, determining, based on the image differences, a detail level value corresponding to the original image, and providing the detail level value to an image management application.

03-07-2013

20130060510

METHOD FOR ESTIMATING TEMPERATURE AT A CRITICAL POINT - Methods and apparatuses are disclosed to estimate temperature at one or more critical points in a data processing system comprising modeling a steady state temperature portion of a thermal model at the one or more critical points using regression analysis; modeling the transient temperature portion of the thermal model at the one or more critical points using a filtering algorithm; and generating a thermal model at the one or more critical points by combining the steady state temperature portion of the thermal model with the transient temperature portion of the thermal model. The thermal model may then be used to estimate an instantaneous temperature at the one or more critical points or to predict a future temperature at the one or more critical points.

03-07-2013

20130061735

POLYPHONIC NOTE DETECTION - Processor-implemented methods and systems for polyphonic note detection are disclosed. The method includes converting a portion of a polyphonic audio signal from a time domain to a frequency domain. The method includes detecting a fundamental frequency peak in the frequency domain. The method then detects a defined number of integer-interval harmonic partials. If a defined number of integer-interval harmonic partials relative to the fundamental frequency peak are detected the fundamental frequency is recorded as a detected note. This process is repeated for each fundamental frequency until each note in the polyphonic audio signal has been detected. For example, this method allows detection of each note in a strummed guitar chord to provide feedback on the tuning of each string in a strummed chord or allows detection and feedback of the timing and pitch errors for guitar chords played along with a reference track.

03-14-2013

20130063885

SHOCK MOUNTING COVER GLASS IN CONSUMER ELECTRONIC DEVICES - Apparatus, systems and methods for shock mounting glass for an electronic device are disclosed. The glass for the electronic device can provide an outer surface for at least a portion of a housing for the electronic device. In one embodiment, the shock mounting can provide a compliant interface between the glass and the electronic device housing. In another embodiment, the shock mounting can provide a mechanically actuated retractable. For example, an outer glass member for an electronic device housing can be referred to as cover glass, which is often provided at a front surface of the electronic device housing.

03-14-2013

20130063914

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING VIAS THROUGH A MODULAR COMPONENT - This relates to systems and methods for providing one or more vias through a module of an electrical system. For example, in some embodiments, the module can include one or more passive elements and/or active of the electrical system around which a packaging has been plastic molded. The module can be stacked under another component of the electrical system. Vias can then be provided that extend through the module. The vias can include, for example, electrically conductive pathways. In this manner, the vias can provide electrical pathways for coupling the component stacked on top of the module to other entities of an electronic device including the electrical system. For example, the component can be coupled to other entities such as other components, other modules, printed circuit boards, other electrical systems, or to any other suitable entity.

03-14-2013

20130063972

Microperforation Illumination - Methods and aparatuses disclosed herein relate to backlit visual display elements. A visual display element may include a base layer defining one or more microperforations and a light guide coupled to a light source. The light guide may be positioned adjacent the base layer and include one or more microlenses in alignment with the one or more microperforations along at least one vertical axis.

03-14-2013

20130064154

Efficient Location Updates, Paging and Short Bursts - A mobile terminal in a wireless communication network may be one of several modes of operation. When in an idle mode, the mobile terminal may avoid a lengthy random access procedure normally associated with responding to a page from a base station, if the base station includes in the page an indication of a resource that the mobile terminal may utilize when responding to the page. Additionally, the mobile terminal may transmit an efficient location update MAC header to a base station, whether prompted to by a page from the base station or not. Furthermore, without leaving the idle mode or a sleep mode, the mobile terminal may exchange short data burst messages with a base station.

03-14-2013

20130064202

Efficient Location Updates, Paging and Short Bursts - A mobile terminal in a wireless communication network may be one of several modes of operation. When in an idle mode, the mobile terminal may avoid a lengthy random access procedure normally associated with responding to a page from a base station, if the base station includes in the page an indication of a resource that the mobile terminal may utilize when responding to the page. Additionally, the mobile terminal may transmit an efficient location update MAC header to a base station, whether prompted to by a page from the base station or not. Furthermore, without leaving the idle mode or a sleep mode, the mobile terminal may exchange short data burst messages with a base station.

03-14-2013

20130064380

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USING A SOUND SENSOR TO ADJUST THE AUDIO OUTPUT FOR A DEVICE - One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that uses a sound sensor to adjust the audio output of a device. During operation, the system uses the sound sensor to determine an ambient sound level for the environment in the proximity of the device. The system then adjusts a volume setting for the device adaptively based on the determined ambient sound level. Adaptively adjusting the volume setting allows the device to adapt to its audio environment and ameliorates potentially-disruptive audio outputs.

Adaptive Dithering During Image Processing - Systems and method are provided for adjusting certain pixel values in an image. In an embodiment of the invention, an average pixel value of pixels at given distances from a selected pixel are examined to determine if the pixel is in a high-contrast area. If the pixel is in a smooth color gradient transition area, the pixel value may be adjusted in some embodiments using an additional dither or dither pattern to reduce differences between the pixel values of the selected pixel and the additional average pixel values exceeding the lower threshold.

03-14-2013

20130065652

DECISIONS ON AMBIENT NOISE SUPPRESSION IN A MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS HANDSET DEVICE - A method in a communications device includes the following operations. During a call, a process automatically detects that the device has moved from an at-the-ear position to an away-from-the-ear position. Based on the detection, a noise suppressor that operates upon an uplink signal for the call is signaled to change its noise suppression performance. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

03-14-2013

20130066836

MANIPULATING ELECTRONIC BACKUPS - Systems and methods are provided for storing and restoring digital data. In some implementations, a method is provided. The method includes initiating a backup operation of data including a plurality of items, interrupting the backup operation, where interrupting occurs after a portion of the data has been completed, receiving an input to resume the backup operation, identifying a previously completed portion of the backup data, and performing a backup of a remaining uncompleted portion of the backup data. Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, computer program products, and computer readable media.

03-14-2013

20130067246

Dynamic Trampoline and Structured Code Generation in a Signed Code Environment - A method and apparatus for performing a function based on an executable code in response to receiving a request including function parameters are described. The executable code may be validated when loaded in a memory according to a signature statically signed over the executable code. A data location in the memory for storing the function parameters may be determined according location settings included inside the executable code. A target code location for storing a copy of the executable code may be determined based on the location parameters and the determined data location. A function is performed by executing the executable code from the target code location referencing the stored function parameters.

03-14-2013

20130067257

Power Managed Lock Optimization - In an embodiment, a timer unit may be provided that may be programmed to a selected time interval, or wakeup interval. A processor may execute a wait for event instruction, and enter a low power state for the thread that includes the instruction. The timer unit may signal a timer event at the expiration of the wakeup interval, and the processor may exit the low power state in response to the timer event. The thread may continue executing with the instruction following the wait for event instruction. In an embodiment, the processor/timer unit may be used to implement a power-managed lock acquisition mechanism, in which the processor is awakened a number of times to check the lock and execute the wait for event instruction if the lock is not free, after which the thread may block until the lock is free.

03-14-2013

20130067292

Scan Latch with Phase-Free Scan Enable - A number of scan flops clocked by a master clock may be used to constructing a scan chain to perform scan tests. During a scan test, data appearing at the regular data input of each scan flop may be written into a master latch of the scan flop during a time period when the scan control signal is in a state corresponding to a capture cycle. A slave latch in each scan flop may latch a value appearing at the regular data input of the scan flop according to a narrow pulse triggered by the rising edge of the master clock when the scan control signal is in the state corresponding to the capture cycle. The slave latch may latch the data provided by the master latch according to a wide pulse triggered by the rising edge of the master clock when the scan control signal is in a state corresponding to a shift cycle. This may permit toggling the scan control signal during either a high phase or a low phase of the master clock, and may also enable testing the pulse functionality of each scan flop.

03-14-2013

20130069562

SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICE KEYBOARD ILLUMINATION - A keyboard may be generally illuminated while also providing for key-specific illumination of one or more particular keys. The keyboard may be generally illuminated using any configuration of any number of suitable illumination sources. The keyboard may selectively illuminate any key or keys together with or apart from the general illumination of other keys. The keyboard may also variably illuminate certain keys to aid the user in navigating the keyboard.

03-21-2013

20130069618

MOMENTARILY ENABLED ELECTRONIC DEVICE - A method and apparatus for providing intermittent or interruptible power to an electronic device. The circuit may provide power upon user initiation and interrupt that power in response to a user command, fault state, period of inactivity and so forth. As one example, interruptible power may be initially provided to activate or “power up” an electronic device and constant power provided after the initial activation. The initial powering up of the device may be facilitated by closing two contacts. The circuit may continue to provide power after the button is released through a monitoring and/or feedback mechanism.

03-21-2013

20130070151

Auto Exposure Techniques for Variable Lighting Conditions - Systems, methods, and a computer readable medium for performing auto exposure (AE) techniques that are beneficial in variable lighting conditions—and particularly applicable to handheld and/or mobile videoconferencing applications—are disclosed herein. Handheld and/or mobile videoconferencing applications—unlike their fixed camera counterparts—are often exposed to a wide variety of rapidly changing lighting and scene conditions, and thus face a difficult trade-off between adjusting exposure parameter values too frequently or not frequently enough. In personal electronic devices executing such handheld and/or mobile videoconferencing applications, it may be desirable to: use a small, centered, and center-weighted exposure metering region; set a relatively low brightness target value; and adjust the camera's exposure parameter values according to a distance-dependent convergence speed function. The use of such techniques, in conjunction with a relatively large stability region, may also improve the quality of a video encoder's temporal predictions—and thus video quality—in videoconferencing applications.

03-21-2013

20130070598

RADIO RESOURCE SIGNALING DURING NETWORK CONGESTION IN A MOBILE WIRELESS DEVICE - A method for radio link control in a mobile wireless communication device. The mobile wireless device transmits a sequence of service requests to establish radio resources with a wireless communication network for a data packet in a pending data buffer. When no radio resources are allocated in response to the transmitted sequence of service requests, the mobile wireless device sets a minimum threshold for the pending data buffer, discards all pending data packets above the minimum threshold and discards the oldest pending data packet. The mobile wireless device repeats transmitting and discarding until a radio resource is allocated or the pending data packet buffer is empty. A retry interval between successive service requests is increased after transmitting each sequence of service requests until reaching a maximum retry interval value.

03-21-2013

20130072235

Location-Based Categorical Information Services - A selection of a category of interest and location information is used to determine categorical information that is provided to a device. In some implementations, the device includes a touch-sensitive display and presents the categorical information on a map using an indicator. In some implementations, the categorical information can be shared and/or updated by others.

03-21-2013

20130073800

Multipage Preparation Commands For Non-Volatile Memory Systems - Multipage preparation commands for non-volatile memory systems are disclosed. The multipage preparation commands supply data that can be used to prepare a non-volatile memory device for forthcoming multipage program operations. A host controller can use the commands ahead of a multipage program operation to optimize usage of a multipage program command. The non-volatile memory device can use the commands to configure the non-volatile memory in preparation for a subsequent operation, such as changing a command order or using the most optimized command set for the subsequent operation.

03-21-2013

20130074020

METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING REDUNDANT SIGNAL PATHS FOR SELF-GATING SIGNALS - A method for identifying and removing redundant signal paths includes determining whether a given input to a logic circuit is coupled to both an input of a cone of logic of a data input of a clocked state element and a clock gate circuit that is coupled to disable a clock input to the clocked state element. The method may include removing the given input from the cone of logic such that the given input is no longer coupled to the input of the cone of logic responsive to determining that the given input is coupled to both the input of the cone of logic and the clock gate circuit. The method may include preserving the given input to the clock gate circuit such that the given input continues to be coupled to the clock gate circuit after being removed from the input of the cone of logic.

03-21-2013

20130075149

CONDUCTIVE FRAME FOR AN ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR - A dual orientation connector having a connector tab with first and second major opposing sides and a plurality of electrical contacts carried by the connector tab. The plurality of contacts includes a first set of external contacts formed at the first major side and a second set of external contacts formed at the second major side. The first plurality of contacts are symmetrically spaced with the second plurality of contacts and the connector tab is shaped to have 180 degree symmetry so that it can be inserted and operatively coupled to a corresponding receptacle connector in either of two insertion orientations.

03-28-2013

20130075241

ACCESSORY CONTROLLER FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICES - Accessories such as headsets for electronic devices are provided. A headset may be provided with a button controller assembly that has user-actuated buttons and a microphone. The microphone may be formed by mounting a microphone transducer on a printed circuit board. A housing may be mounted over the transducer to form a sealed cavity for the transducer. Circuitry may be mounted on portions of the printed circuit board that extend beyond the edges of the microphone housing. The button controller assembly may have dome switches. The dome switches may have a housing that encloses dome switch components and that forms a structural internal part for the button controller. The dome switch housing structure may have tabs or other engagement features that mate with corresponding engagement features in a button member. The button member may be pressed by a user to actuate a desired dome switch.

03-28-2013

20130075613

HIDDEN SENSORS IN AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE - An electronic device having one or more sensors is provided. The sensors may include any suitable type of sensor that emits or receives radiation (e.g., light waves) from the environment. The electronic device may include openings through which radiation may reach the sensors while keeping the sensors hidden from view. In some embodiments, the sensors may be placed underneath an opening used for an audio receiver such that radiation is piped to the sensors using a light path or a chamfered surface along the opening. In some embodiments, the sensors may be embedded in a screen such that the radiation emitted by the sensors exits the screen instead of being reflected on the screen. In some embodiments, the sensors may be placed along the periphery of the display, such that access to the sensors is provided via discontinuities in a gasket used to couple the display to the electronic device.

03-28-2013

20130077469

Preambles in OFDMA System - The present invention provides a preamble that is inserted into an OFDMA frame and has a common sequence for all the base stations participating in a transmission. The subscriber station performs fine synchronization using the common sequence on the common preamble, and the resulting peaks will provide the locations of candidate base stations. The base station specific search is then performed in the vicinities of those peaks by using base station specific pseudo-noise sequences. With this two stage cell search, the searching window is drastically reduced. The preamble is matched to known values by a respective receiver to decode the signals and permit multiple signals to be transferred from the transmitter to the receiver. The preamble may comprise two parts, Preamble-I and Preamble-2, which may be used in different systems, including multioutput, multi-input (MIMO) systems.

03-28-2013

20130077813

Printed Circuit Boards with Embedded Components - Printed circuit boards are provided with embedded components. The embedded components may be mounted within recesses in the surface of a printed circuit board substrate. The printed circuit board substrate may have grooves and buried channels in which wires may be mounted. Recesses may be provided with solder pads to which the wires may be soldered or attached with conductive adhesive. An integrated switch may be provided in an opening within a printed circuit board substrate. The integrated switch may have a dome switch member that is mounted within the opening. A cover member for the switch may be formed from a flexible layer that covers the dome switch member. Terminals for the integrated switch may be formed from conductive structures in an interior printed circuit board layer. Interconnects may be used to electrically connect embedded components such as switches, integrated circuits, solder pads for wires, and other devices.

03-28-2013

20130077866

OBJECT DETECTION METADATA - A perimeter around a detected object in a frame of image data can be generated in a first coordinate system. The perimeter can be converted from the first coordinate system into a second coordinate system having the same aspect ratio as the first coordinate system. A first metadata entry can include dimensions of image data in the second coordinate system. A second metadata entry can provide a location and dimensions of the converted perimeter in the second coordinate space. Additional metadata can indicate matching objects between frames, position of an object relative to other objects in a frame, a probability that an object is correctly detected, and a total number of objects detected across multiple frames of image data.

03-28-2013

20130080455

RECOMMENDER SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFYING A NEW SET OF MEDIA ITEMS RESPONSIVE TO AN INPUT SET OF MEDIA ITEMS AND KNOWLEDGE BASE METRICS - Systems and methods are disclosed for identifying a new set of media items in response to an input set (or “query set”) of media items and knowledge base metrics. The system uses a knowledge base consisting of a collection of mediasets. Various metrics among media items are considered by analyzing how the media items are grouped to form the mediasets in the knowledge base. Such association or “similarity” metrics are preferably stored in a matrix form that allows the system to efficiently identify a new set of media items that complements the input set of media items.

03-28-2013

20130080599

PORTABLE MEDIA PLAYER AS A REMOTE CONTROL - A portable multimedia player is used to wirelessly access and control a media server that is streaming digital media by way of a wireless interface to a media unit such as a stereo/speakers in the case of streaming digital audio. In one embodiment, the portable multimedia player is wirelessly synchronized to a selected one(s) of a number of digital media files stored on the media server in such a way that digital media file metadata (song title, author, etc.) associated with the selected digital media file(s) only is transferred from the media server to be stored in the portable media player.

03-28-2013

20130080660

COMMAND QUEUE FOR PERIPHERAL COMPONENT - In an embodiment, a peripheral component configured to control an external interface of an integrated circuit. For example, the peripheral component may be a memory interface unit such as a flash memory interface unit. The internal interface to the peripheral component may be shared between data transfers to/from the external interface and control communications to the peripheral component. The peripheral component may include a command queue configured to store a set of commands to perform a transfer on the interface. A control circuit may be coupled to the command queue and may read the commands and communicate with an interface controller to cause a transfer on the interface responsive to the commands. In an embodiment, a macro memory may store command sequences to be performed in response to a macro command in the command queue. In an embodiment, an operand queue may store operand data for use by the commands.

03-28-2013

20130083718

System and Method for Spatial Multiplexing-Based OFDM Broadcast/Multicast Transmission - A method of OFDM transmission/reception comprising: transmitting broadcast/multicast signals on a first antenna and unicast signals on a second antenna; segregating broadcast/multicast sub-channelization from unicast channels sub-channelization based on FDM(frequency division multiplexing)/TDM (time division multiplexing) sub-channelization.

04-04-2013

20130084820

Device and Method for Cascading Filters of Different Materials - Some embodiments of the invention provide a filter having at least one first filter, each first filter being a band-reject type filter having a first set of filter parameters that are a function of a first material used to fabricate the at least one first filter, and at least one second filter, each second filter having a second set of filter parameters that are a function of a second material used to fabricate the at least one second filter, each second filter being one of a band-reject type filter and a band pass type filter. The at least one first filter and the at least one second filter are then cascaded together to form the filter. The cascaded filter has a new third set of filter parameters that are a function of both the first material and the second material.

04-04-2013

20130084858

EXPANDED CELL SEARCH AND SELECTION IN A MOBILE WIRELESS DEVICE - A method and apparatus for expanded cell search and selection in a mobile wireless device. The mobile device locates cells in a first of neighbor cells and in a second list of stored cells and evaluates located cells using suitability criteria. When locating a suitable first cell that uses a first radio access technology (RAT) in the first list, the first cell is selected. When locating a second suitable cell that uses a second RAT in the first list and not locating a suitable cell that uses the first RAT in the second list, the second cell is selected. When locating a third suitable cell that uses the second RAT in the first list and locating a fourth suitable cell that uses the first RAT in the second list, the fourth cell is selected when more suitable than the third cell.

04-04-2013

20130087690

OPTICAL CONNECTION OF DEVICES - Optical connectors, adapters, and devices with such are provided. Optical connectors can have a relatively large diameter for the optical interface. For example, optical connectors can include a collector for receiving optical signals at a large opening and providing signals to a photodiode at a small opening of the collector. Such optical connectors with a large diameter for an optical interface can advantageously provide reduced alignment tolerances and/or provide high data rates. Adapters can use a collector to convert optical data signals from a large width fiber to a smaller width fiber. An optical connector can be in a docking station, and lie underneath a bottom surface of a recess in the docking station.

04-11-2013

20130088355

THREE DIMENSIONAL RF SIGNATURES - Method and systems to detect tampering in a physical article are described herein. A method includes receiving, at a first point in time, at least two response signals from at least one RF tag in a set of RF tags associated with the physical article; forming a first response signature for the physical article based on the received response signals; receiving a second response signal from at least one other RF tag in the set of RF tags associated with the physical article at a second point in time; assessing a relative spacing between the RF tags associated with the physical article has changed from the first point in time to the second point in time; and determining tampering of the physical article as a result of the spacing assessment.

04-11-2013

20130088500

Policy-Based Switching Between Graphics-Processing Units - The disclosed embodiments provide a system that configures a computer system to switch between graphics-processing units (GPUs). In one embodiment, the system drives a display using a first graphics-processing unit (GPU) in the computer system. Next, the system detects one or more events associated with one or more dependencies on a second GPU in the computer system. Finally, in response to the event, the system prepares to switch from the first GPU to the second GPU as a signal source for driving the display.

04-11-2013

20130089290

HYBRID OPTICAL CONNECTOR - Connector systems that carry electrical signals and optical signals in a single connector are provided. A male electro-optical connector can have an electrical insert portion that fits into a receptacle of a female electro-optical connector to provide a structural connection. The optical interface can be advantageously near a front of the connectors for easy maintenance. Optical connectors with a relatively large diameter for the optical interface are also provided. Optical connectors can include a collector for receiving optical signals at a large opening and providing signals to a photodiode at a small opening of the collector. Such optical connectors with a large diameter for an optical interface can advantageously provide reduced alignment tolerances. Adapters, cable adapters, docking stations, and other apparatus can also be provided.

04-11-2013

20130091174

DATA DETECTION - An apparatus for processing a sequence of tokens to detect predetermined data, wherein each said token has a token type, and the predetermined data has a structure that comprises a predetermined sequence of token types, including at least one optional token type. The apparatus comprises a processor arranged to: provide a tree for detecting the predetermined data, the tree comprising a plurality of states, each said state being linked with at least one other state by a respective condition, the arrangement of linked states forming a plurality of paths; and compare the token types of the sequence of tokens to respective conditions in the tree to match the sequence of tokens to one or more paths in the tree, wherein the predetermined data can be detected without using an epsilon reduction to take account of said at least one optional token type.

04-11-2013

20130091256

SELECTION OF AN APPROPRIATE ONLINE CONTENT SOURCE BASED ON PROGRAM INFORMATION - Methods and arrangements for selecting a content source from a plurality of potential content sources based on program information are described. A network resource maintains a mapping between itself and a static URL to be accessed by an application when updating content used in the application. The network resource can receive, over an electronic network, a configuration request providing the static URL and program information that at least identifies the application and version of the application. Based on the received information that is specific to the identified application version and from which content specific for that application version can be obtained, the network resource determines a second URL and provides the second URL to the application in response to the request.

04-11-2013

20130092941

IMAGE SENSOR WITH PHOTOSENSITIVE THIN FILM TRANSISTORS - An image sensor array includes image sensors having photo TFTs to generate photocurrent in response to received images. The photo TFTs each have their respective gate electrodes and source electrodes independently biased to reduce the effects of dark current. Storage capacitors are coupled to each photo TFT and discharged upon generation of a photocurrent. Each storage capacitor is coupled to a readout TFT that passes a current from the storage capacitor to a data line. The photo TFT may be disposed above the storage capacitor to increase the exposed surface area of the photo TFT.

04-18-2013

20130093330

White Point Adjustment for Multicolor Keyboard Backlight - There are provided systems, devices and methods for operating a light source to match a white point of ambient light. In one embodiment, a light control system is provided. The light control system includes a light source and a light sensor. The light sensor is configured to operate in conjunction with the light source to provide a visual effect. A controller is electrically coupled to the light source and the light sensor and configured to determine the intensity and color of light to which the light sensor is exposed and dynamically adjust the output of the light source to match the determined intensity and color of light to which the light sensor is exposed.

04-18-2013

20130093710

STORING BASELINE INFORMATION IN EEPROM - Pre-stored no-touch or no-hover (no-event) sensor output values can initially be used when a sensor panel subsystem is first booted up to establish an initial baseline of sensor output values unaffected by fingers or other objects touching or hovering over the sensor panel during boot-up. This initial baseline can then be normalized so that each sensor generates the same output value for a given amount of touch or hover, providing a uniform response across the sensor panel and enabling subsequent touch or hover events to be more easily detected. After the initial normalization process is complete, the pre-stored baseline can be discarded in favor of a newly captured no-event baseline that may be more accurate than the pre-stored baseline due to temperature or other variations.

ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND MAGNETIC LATCHING MECHANISM THEREFORE - A magnetic latch for a display of a laptop computer uses magnetic attraction to maintain the display closed and uses magnetic repelling forces to pop-up the display when opened. The latch includes one or more magnetic elements in the body of the laptop and at least one magnetic element in the display. When the display is closed, the magnet element in the display is positioned adjacent the magnet element in the body having an opposite polarity so that the magnet elements are attracted to one another. To pop-up the display, the user moves the magnetic element in the display so that it meets the magnetic pole in the body having the same polarity. When these meet, the repelling force between them causes the display to open slightly so that a user can then readily open the display.

04-18-2013

20130094420

MOMETARY BURST PROTOCOL FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION - A method for communicating data using a “burst protocol” includes enabling power to transmitters and receivers when needed to balance power consumption with latency and unscheduled communication. A transmitter transmits a plurality of packets indicative of substantially the same payload. Power then may be disabled to the transmitter. A first predetermined time is determined to enable a receiver. A second predetermined time is determined to disable the receiver. Power then may be enabled to the receiver based on the first predetermined time. The payload is output in response to receiving one or more of the plurality of packets. Power to the receiver is disabled based on the second predetermined time.

04-18-2013

20130094473

SIP - ENABLED FRAMEWORK FOR MULTI-DOMAIN ROAMING CONTROL PLANE IN A WIMAX ACCESS NETWORK - Middleware is provided as a control plane for WiMAX control messaging. Each ASN in a WiMAX system is associated with a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) server. A plurality of Functional Entities (FEs) are distributed across the ASNs, wherein each FE (or a group of FEs) associated with a SIP agent. Each FE is operable to control a function associated with a subscriber station (SS). The function controlled by a first FE is transferred to a second FE by employing the SIP agents to establish a SIP session between the first and second FEs. WiMAX control messages are then exchanged over the established session to transfer the SS function from the first FE to the second FE. The first and second FEs may be in the same ASN, or the first and second FEs may be in different ASNs.

04-18-2013

20130095783

TRANSFER OF EMERGENCY SERVICES SESSION BETWEEN DISPARATE SUBSYSTEMS - Methods and nodes for coordinating communication sessions are described herein. A method includes providing, by a control system, a signaling anchor point at a domain transfer function in a visited multimedia subsystem for an access signaling leg and a remote access signaling leg for a communication session between a user element and a public service access point and coordinating call signaling for the communication session via the access signaling leg and the remote signaling leg.

04-18-2013

20130097502

Editing and Saving Key-Indexed Geometries in Media Editing Applications - Some embodiment provide media editing applications that include libraries that (i) provide presets (i.e., predefined operations and/or predefined attribute values) for modifying key indices and interpolation between the key indices, and/or (ii) provide storage for storing presets defined by a user of the media editing application. Some embodiments display the presets as thumbnails, thumbnails with text descriptions, and/or text-defined operations. In addition, some embodiments provide user-interface tools that allow the user of the media editing application to augment the preset libraries by storing a selected part of one key-indexed geometry or parts of multiple different geometries as a user-defined preset.

04-18-2013

20130097511

Positioning a Virtual Sound Capturing Device in a Three Dimensional Interface - A method, system, and computer-readable product for positioning a virtual sound capturing device in a graphical user interface (GUI) are disclosed. The method includes displaying a virtual sound capturing device in relation to a virtual sound producing device in a three dimensional interface and in a two dimensional graphical map. Additionally, the method includes adjusting the display of the virtual sound capturing device in relation to the virtual sound producing device in both the three dimensional interface and the two dimensional graphical map in response to commands received from an input device.

04-18-2013

20130099745

EXTERNAL POWER SOURCE VOLTAGE DROP COMPENSATION FOR PORTABLE DEVICES - A portable electronic device has a connector with a first pin and a second pin, and a battery charging circuit having an input coupled to receive current through the second pin to charge a battery of the device. The portable device also has a controller to determine whether the connector is coupled to an external power source (EPS) having a power converter circuit that can provide the current. The controller on that basis drives the first pin to stimulate the power converter circuit to raise voltage on the second pin. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

04-25-2013

20130100028

In-Plane Keyboard Illumination - A computer keyboard includes a plurality of keys arranged in a pattern contained within a plane, a webbed structure defining openings for each of the keys, an illumination source, and one or more light pipes positioned along the webbed structure and arranged to deliver light from the illumination source to the keys, wherein each of the keys is illuminated thereby. Although the keys have the appearance of being backlit similar to traditional illuminated keyboards, the illumination source is actually located along at least one side of and within the same plane as the pattern of keys, rather than beneath the keys. The keyboard can thus be made thinner in such arrangements where the illumination source does not need to be located beneath the keys.

04-25-2013

20130100638

Side Cured Light-Transmissive Display System - An invisible, light-transmissive display system with a light resistant material is provided. The light resistant material has a first side and a second side. Substantially invisible holes penetrate between the first surface and the second surface in a predetermined light-transmissive display pattern. The second surface is exposed to a side curing light that is substantially parallel to the second surface at the invisible holes thereadjacent. A light-conducting curable filler is applied into the invisible holes from the first surface. Surfaces of the light-conducting curable filler are cured in the invisible holes at the second surface with the side curing light. The remaining curable filler in the invisible holes is cured.

04-25-2013

20130102097

MULTICOLOR LIGHT EMITTING DIODES - A device such as a multicolor light emitting diode that emits different colors of light and that may combine the different colors emitted by individual light emitting diodes. The multicolor LED may include a common anode terminal that may be connected to each anode of the individual light emitting diodes. The multicolor LED may be a five terminal multicolor LED. Additionally, the multicolor LED may include two anode terminals, in which the first anode terminal may be a common anode terminal connected to three of the individual color LEDs and the second anode terminal may be connected to an anode of a white LED. In this embodiment, the multicolor LED may be a six terminal multicolor LED.

04-25-2013

20130102242

CONTENT SELECTION BASED ON SIMULCAST DATA - A computer system receives information snippets from a mobile device. The information snippets are extracted from a simulcast of a data stream of a radio broadcast received on the mobile device. The system identifies content metadata from the information snippets. The content metadata describes one or more features of the radio broadcast. The system selects a radio station from a radio station repository based on attributes of the radio station. One of the selection criteria is that the attributes of the radio station match at least a portion of the content metadata. The system presents a reference to the radio station to the mobile device as a recommendation.

04-25-2013

20130102329

Location-Based Services - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for location-based services. An event or device condition is detected at a device. A current geographic location of a device is determined. Location-based information based on the determined current geographic location is received. The location-based information includes information relevant to the event or device condition. The information is presented.

04-25-2013

20130103906

Combining Write Buffer with Dynamically Adjustable Flush Metrics - In an embodiment, a combining write buffer is configured to maintain one or more flush metrics to determine when to transmit write operations from buffer entries. The combining write buffer may be configured to dynamically modify the flush metrics in response to activity in the write buffer, modifying the conditions under which write operations are transmitted from the write buffer to the next lower level of memory. For example, in one implementation, the flush metrics may include categorizing write buffer entries as “collapsed.” A collapsed write buffer entry, and the collapsed write operations therein, may include at least one write operation that has overwritten data that was written by a previous write operation in the buffer entry. In another implementation, the combining write buffer may maintain the threshold of buffer fullness as a flush metric and may adjust it over time based on the actual buffer fullness.

04-25-2013

20130103967

METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR DYNAMIC POWER CONTROL - Methods and apparatuses for dynamically budgeting power usage in a data processing system. In one aspect, a data processing system, includes: one or more first components capable of being dynamically throttled to a plurality of different performance level settings; one or more second components; and one or more power usage sensors. The one or more power usage sensors are to determine information on power usage during a first time period of operation of the data processing system. The one or more first components and the one or more second components may include a computing element to determine one of the performance level settings of the one or more first components of the data processing system for a second time period subsequent to the first time period using the information on the power usage during the first time period.

04-25-2013

20130103968

METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR DYNAMIC POWER CONTROL - Exemplary embodiments of methods and apparatuses to manage a power of a system that leverage intermediate power margins are described. One or more subsystems of the system are operated at one or more performance points. A power consumed by the one or more subsystems at each of the one or more performance points is measured. An operational power of the one or more subsystems at the one or more performance points is determined. The one or more subsystems are operated at well-known conditions at the one or more performance points. The operational power may be adjusted based on data associated with the one or more subsystems. The operational power is provided to a power lookup table. The power is distributed among the one or more subsystems based on the operational power.

04-25-2013

20130104042

Anchor Override for a Media-Editing Application with an Anchored Timeline - Some embodiments provide a non-transitory machine readable medium that stores a media-editing application which when executed by at least one processing unit provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for creating a composite media presentation from several media clips. The GUI includes a composite display area for placing media clips to specify the composite media presentation. The composite display area includes (1) a primary lane for placing a primary sequence of media clips and (2) several secondary lanes for placing media clips that are anchored to media clips in the primary lane. The GUI includes an editing tool that includes a first mode for performing an edit operation to a particular media clip and a set of media clips anchored to the particular media clip and a second mode for performing the edit operation to the particular media clip without performing the edit operation to the set of media clips anchored to the particular media clip.

04-25-2013

20130104043

HANDHELD DEVICES AS VISUAL INDICATORS - A computing device is configured with a multifunctional backlit display. The backlighting can be operated in at least a first mode and a second mode. In a first mode, the backlighting provides luminance to the display so that images on the display can be easily seen. In a second mode, the backlighting provides visual stimulus for relaying information to a user or a user's surroundings.

04-25-2013

20130104147

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SYNCHRONOUS OPERATION OF LINKED COMMAND OBJECTS - A system and method for synchronous operation of linked command objects in a software application. The software application manages data objects in a number of contexts. Each context manages a number of command objects. Each command object operates on data objects in its context. To support synchronous operations that affect the state of data objects in more than one context, command objects are linked to each other. When a command object is executed, its context identifies a command object linked to the executed command object and initiates the execution of the linked command object. This synchronization allows for synchronous undo and redone operations. The delete states of the command objects are also synchronized. When one command object is deleted the command object linked thereto is also deleted, thereby preventing the linked command object from being independently undone resulting in an inconsistent state of the contexts.

04-25-2013

20130104221

Group Formation Using Anonymous Broadcast Information - A number of devices co-located at a geographic location can broadcast and receive tokens. Tokens can be exchanged using a communication link having limited communication range. Tokens that are received by a device can be stored locally on the device and/or transmitted to a trusted service operating remotely on a network. In some implementations, the tokens can be stored with corresponding timestamps to assist a trusted service in matching or otherwise correlating the tokens with other tokens provided by other devices. The trusted service can perform an analysis on the tokens and timestamps to identify devices that were co-located at the geographic location at or around a contact time which can be defined by the timestamps. A group can be created based on results of the analysis. Users can be identified as members of the group and invited to join the group.

04-25-2013

20130112067

Graphical User Interface for Music Sequence Programming Field - An example graphical programming interface system includes a processor. A grid matrix defined by a plurality of coordinate axes, having selectable matrix positions is displayed on a display device. Multiple movable object icons, each representing an object having a predefined output sound are also displayed on the display device. In one aspect, a single object data file is associated with each matrix position on said grid matrix. In this aspect, once a user places an object icon on a matrix position, the processor causes the predefined output sound associated with the object icon in accordance with the object data file associated with the matrix position at which the object icon is placed, and outputs the processed sound to an output device. This allows a user to program musical sequences by placing one or more object icons each on the selectable matrix positions.

05-09-2013

20130112565

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING A LAYERED METAL STRUCTURE WITH AN ANODIZED SURFACE - Methods and apparatus for forming a multi-layered metal structure that includes an anodized surface are disclosed. According to one aspect, a housing arrangement can include a stainless steel layer and at least a first layer. The first layer can have a first bonding surface and a first exterior surface. The first bonding surface can be substantially bonded in direct contact with the stainless steel layer, and the first exterior surface can be an exterior of the housing arrangement. The first exterior surface is an anodized surface. In one embodiment, the first layer can be formed from an anodizable material such as aluminum, titanium, niobium, or tantalum.

05-09-2013

20130113658

Inverse Beamformer for Inverting the Action of Existing Beamformer in Communication System - A beamformer is arranged to receive an input from a first antenna element and from at least one other antenna element and to generate at least a first and second output beam. The first and second output beams are combined at a connecting port such that signals received at the first antenna element are constructively combined at the connecting port and signals received at another antenna element or elements are destructively combined at the connecting port, so that a receiver connected to the connecting port may receive signals from the first antenna element and may not receive signals from the other antenna element or elements. The arrangement may also be used to transmit a signal which is fed into the connecting point from the first antenna element and not from the other antenna element or elements.

05-09-2013

20130114228

ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE SHIELDING TECHNIQUES - Methods and apparatuses are disclosed for fabricating a printed circuit board (PCB) having electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding and also having reduced volume over conventional frame-and-shield approaches. Some embodiments include fabricating the PCB by mounting an integrated circuit to the PCB, outlining an area corresponding to the integrated circuit with a number of grounded vias, selectively applying an insulating layer over the PCB such that at least one of the grounded vias are exposed, and selectively applying a conductive layer over the PCB such that the conductive layer covers at least a portion of the integrated circuit and such that the conductive layer is coupled to the at least one of the grounded vias that are exposed.

05-09-2013

20130115491

PRESSURE-RELIEF MECHANISM TO IMPROVE SAFETY IN LITHIUM-POLYMER BATTERY CELLS - The disclosed embodiments relate to a battery cell which includes a weakness for relieving pressure. This battery cell includes a jelly roll comprising layers which are wound together, including a cathode with an active coating, a separator and an anode with an active coating. The jelly roll also includes a first conductive tab coupled to the cathode and a second conductive tab coupled to the anode. The jelly roll is enclosed in a flexible pouch, wherein the first and second conductive tabs extend through seals in the pouch to provide terminals for the battery cell. This pouch includes a weakness which yields when internal pressure in the pouch exceeds a threshold to create a hole which releases the internal pressure.

05-09-2013

20130115500

BATTERY ASSEMBLY FOR BATTERY POWERED PORTABLE DEVICES - A battery assembly includes at least a plurality of battery cells that includes at least a first and a second battery cell each attached to a distributed battery monitoring unit, the second battery cell being associated with an external circuit, the second battery cell connected to a battery management unit (BMU) by way of a pre-formed battery contact shaped to accommodate the external circuit. The plurality of battery cells are electrically connected to at least the BMU such that each of the plurality of battery cells are substantially aligned with each other thereby preserving a battery profile corresponding to unconnected battery cells.

05-09-2013

20130115817

TECHNIQUES FOR CONFIGURING CONTACTS OF A CONNECTOR - Systems and methods for configuring contacts of a first connector includes detecting mating of a second connector with the first connector and in response to the detection, sending a command over one of the contacts and waiting for a response to the command. If a valid response to the command is received, the system determines the orientation of the second connector. The response also includes configuration information for contacts in the second connector. The system then configures some of the other contacts of the first connector based on the determined orientation and configuration information of the contacts of the second connector.

05-09-2013

20130115821

DUAL ORIENTATION CONNECTOR WITH EXTERNAL CONTACTS AND CONDUCTIVE FRAME - A dual orientation connector having a connector tab with first and second major opposing sides and a plurality of electrical contacts carried by the connector tab. The plurality of contacts includes a first set of external contacts formed at the first major side and a second set of external contacts formed at the second major side. Each individual contact in the first plurality of contacts is electrically connected within the tab or body to a corresponding contact in the second plurality of contacts. In some embodiments contacts in the first and second pluralities of contacts that are directly opposite each other are coupled together. In some other embodiments, contacts in the first and second pluralities of contacts that are in a cater cornered relationship with each other are coupled together. The first plurality of contacts are symmetrically spaced with the second plurality of contacts and the connector tab is shaped to have 180 degree symmetry so that it can be inserted and operatively coupled to a corresponding receptacle connector in either of two insertion orientations.

05-09-2013

20130115826

REDUCED SIZE MULTI-PIN FEMALE RECEPTACLE CONNECTOR - Receptacle connectors and male plug connectors having a reduced size in at least one direction can be provided. One example reduces height by not including a center contact tab or tongue, but instead places contacts on an insulator that is adjacent to a bottom portion of the receptacle. Another example may reduce width by reducing contact pitch, and may use a particular shape of contact to achieve god signal quality. Receptacle connectors and male plug connectors can also provide support for one or more new high-speed communication standards, such as USB 3.0 and DisplayPort. Methods can provide one or more standardized connector components to speed connector design and manufacture of new electronic devices such as media players, thus reducing their time to market.

05-09-2013

20130115927

Active Transport Based Notifications - Techniques for triggering an action associated with a task items are provided. A task item associated with a triggering criterion is provided. The triggering criterion requires an occurrence of any of a plurality of communication events. The plurality of communication events includes a telephone call. In some implementations, at least two of the plurality of communication events are of different communication types. In some implementations, the different types are telephone calls, emails, and text messages. The occurrence of a first communication event of the plurality of communication events is detected. It is determined the triggering criterion is satisfied. In response to the determining, a notification associated with the task item is caused to be presented to a user of the electronic device.

05-09-2013

20130115937

Control of Electronic Devices Based on Capability Descriptions - Methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer readable media for controlling one or more electronic devices are described. According to one described aspect, an embodiment of a method includes providing a plurality of schemes, each scheme defining features that are operable on an electronic device and which features each of the features in the scheme can use, and receiving data for identifying the type of the electronic device, and selecting, based on the type, one of the schemes, and controlling the electronic device based on the selected scheme.

05-09-2013

20130115948

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USING A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICE WITH MULTIPLE SERVICE PROVIDERS - Configuring a mobile wireless communication device using a carrier service configuration profile selected from a set of stored carrier service configuration profiles. Carrier service configuration profiles are selected based on one or more combinations of identifier values stored in the mobile wireless communication device. Carrier service configuration profiles are priority ranked based on a specificity of the one or more combinations of identifier values.

05-09-2013

20130115986

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PARTIAL INTERFERENCE REDUCTION WITHIN WIRELESS NETWORKS - Methods and apparatus that enable one or more wireless networks to minimize inter-cellular interference (ICI) at a receiver. In one embodiment, the network comprises an OFDM-based cellular network, and the method comprises utilizing a priori knowledge of non-data portions of signals from multiple base stations in order to schedule transmissions. In one variant, these non-data portions comprise pilot tones; the pilot tones can be scheduled onto various time-frequency resources of the network so as to minimize ICI. The mobility context of the receiver can also be used as a basis for dynamically adjusting the pilot tone density. In another variant, precoding (e.g., Tomlinson-Harashima precoding) can be applied to “shape” the non-data portions of the transmitted signals so as to mitigate ICI. In yet other variants, frame preambles and learning sequences are used as the basis for invoking selective transmission time shifts across the potentially interfering base stations so as to minimize ICI.

05-09-2013

20130116007

CAMERA AS INPUT INTERFACE - A portable handheld electronic device contains a camera lens and accelerometer to allow a user to control voicemail and call features by swiping his finger across the camera lens and/or tapping the device. Therefore, the user can comfortably input commands into the device with a single hand and without needing to move the phone away from his ear to apply these inputs. In another embodiment, the camera lens can also be used to control navigation of the display screen or a displayed document of the device. For example, if a user wishes to shift a scrollbar for a page displayed on the screen downwards to view the bottom of the page, the user should move his finger over the camera lens in an analogous downward direction.

05-09-2013

20130116014

Microphone Line Based Detection of Headset Plug Removal - Embodiments of the invention include methods, apparatus, systems and means for distinguishing between microphone line signals resulting from: actuation of a microphone button of a headset plugged into a telephone device jack, and removal of the headset plug form the jack. During a telephone call, a first signal can be detected on a microphone line of a headset jack to indicate whether a microphone button of the headset is actuated. Also, while the headset plug is being disconnected from the jack, a transition on the microphone line can be detected, from a second signal indicating that the microphone is being disconnected, to a third signal indicating that the microphone button is actuated. Consequently, to avoid erroneously hanging up a call, transitions to the third signal when removing the plug form the jack can be ignored and the call can be maintained. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

05-09-2013

20130117022

Personalized Vocabulary for Digital Assistant - Methods, systems, and computer readable storage medium related to operating an intelligent digital assistant are disclosed. A text string is obtained from a speech input received from a user. The received text string is interpreted to derive a representation of user intent based at least in part on a plurality of words associated with a user and stored in memory associated with the user, the plurality of words including words from a plurality of user interactions with an automated assistant. At least one domain, a task, and at least one parameter for the task, are identified based at least in part on the representation of user intent. The identified task is performed. An output is provided to the user, where the output is related to the performance of the task.

05-09-2013

20130117470

TECHNIQUES FOR CONFIGURING CONTACTS OF A CONNECTOR - Systems and methods for configuring contacts of a first connector includes detecting mating of a second connector with the first connector and in response to the detection, sending a command over one of the contacts and waiting for a response to the command. If a valid response to the command is received, the system determines the orientation of the second connector. The response also includes configuration information for contacts in the second connector. The system then configures some of the other contacts of the first connector based on the determined orientation and configuration information of the contacts of the second connector.

05-09-2013

20130117597

TIME SYNCHRONIZATION OF MULTIPLE TIME-BASED DATA STREAMS WITH INDEPENDENT CLOCKS - Techniques are described for synchronizing multiple time-based data streams with independent clocks wherein relationships between clock rates of timing devices associated with the time-based data streams are determined, and based on these relationships, times in at least one of the time-based data streams may be translated to times in any of the other time-based data streams despite the data streams having independent clocks.

05-09-2013

20130118829

INVERTIBLE EAR TIPS FOR AN EAR PIECE - An ear piece for providing audio (e.g., from an electronic device) to the user is provided. The ear piece may include a compliant element operative to be inserted in the user's ear such that the compliant element deforms to retain the ear piece in the user's ear. The compliant element may include a connector portion coupling the compliant element to the ear piece housing, and an outer portion folded over the ear piece housing. To improve the user's comfort, the compliant element may be manufactured inverted, such that parting lines or other defects due to the manufacturing process are located on the outer surface of the inverted outer portion. Then, when the compliant element is inverted post-manufacturing, the parting lines and other manufacturing defects may be hidden from view and from touch (e.g., the parting lines are then on the inner surface of the outer portion).

05-16-2013

20130118871

SELF CAPTURING AND KEYED MOBILE DEVICE BUTTON - A housing of an electronic device encloses and supports at least one operational component and includes at least one opening sized to accommodate a mechanical input assembly. The mechanical input assembly includes a feature arranged to receive an input event, at least a portion of the feature exposed at an outside surface of the housing, an operational indicia visible on the exposed portion and having a preferred orientation with respect to the housing, the operational indicial providing an indication of how an operation of the operational component is influenced, and a shaft having a size and shape in accordance with the opening, the shaft attached to the external feature at a first end and an integrally formed self-capturing feature at the second end. The self-capturing feature is inserted into the opening until activated. The indicia is then properly aligned and the mechanical input assembly is locked to the housing.

05-16-2013

20130118877

MULTIPLE FUNCTION INLINE CONTROLLER WITH BUTTONS EXTENDING ALONG DIFFERENT AXES - Methods, apparatus and systems which provide buttons oriented at angles relative to each other as a part of a multiple function switch are described. In one embodiment, the multiple function switch is part of an inline controller that is suitable for use to control features or functions of a portable electronic device. A multiple function switch may be incorporated in a cable associated with an earpiece arranged to be interfaced with a portable electronic device.

05-16-2013

20130118879

COMPACT INPUT DEVICE - Compact input devices formed on flexible substrates are disclosed. The input devices may be formed using three or more conducting layers. By including three or more conducting layers, the diameter of the input device may be minimized. In addition, to improve the flexibility of portions of the input device mounted, some portions of the input device may be made to have fewer layers than other portions of the input device.

05-16-2013

20130120303

TOUCH SENSOR PANEL DESIGN - A touch sensor panel including a plurality of drive lines crossing a plurality of sense lines, forming an array. The plurality of drive lines and the plurality of sense lines are formed by interconnecting sections of at least one conductive material having a truncated diamond shape or formed of interconnected conductive lines. At least one conductive dummy region may be disposed in an area of the touch sensor panel around the truncated diamond shape sections or interconnected conductive lines of the plurality of drive lines and the plurality of sense lines. One or more lines may be formed overlapping the interconnected sections of each of the plurality of drive lines and the plurality of sense lines.

05-16-2013

20130120411

ASYNCHRONOUS NOTIFICATIONS FOR CONCURRENT GRAPHICS OPERATIONS - A method and an apparatus for notifying a display driver to update a display with a graphics frame including multiple graphics data rendered separately by multiple graphics processing units (GPUs) substantially concurrently are described. Graphics commands may be received to dispatch to each GPU for rendering corresponding graphics data. The display driver may be notified when each graphics data has been completely rendered respectively by the corresponding GPU.

05-16-2013

20130120957

RF SHIELDING FOR ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS - An RF shield formed of RF opaque material that permits access to components on a printed circuit board is described. The RF shield can include a first portion attached to the PCB and a removable top portion attached to the first portion at an interface. The top portion is removed from the first portion to expose the components on the PCB. In one aspect of the described embodiment, the top portion is peeled away from the first portion. The components are enclosed within the RF shield after the removal of the top portion by attaching and sealing another top portion to the first portion at the interface by, for example, laser attaching the first portion and the other top portion at the interface.

VARIABLE-DIAMETER LANYARDS AND SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MAKING THE SAME - Variable-diameter lanyards and systems and methods for manufacturing the same are disclosed. Variable-diameter lanyards can include a variable diameter core with a woven exterior. Tensile members may be included in the variable-diameter core for structural support and added strength.

05-16-2013

20130122725

Printed Circuits with Staggered Contact Pads and Compact Component Mounting Arrangements - Electronic devices may be provided with printed circuits to which integrated circuits and other electrical components may be mounted. A first printed circuit may have a first surface with an array of contact pads arranged in rows and columns. Each column of contact pads may have a series of contact pads separated by gaps. The contact pads in each column may be staggered with respect to the contact pads in adjacent columns such that each contact pad in a given column is horizontally adjacent to associated gaps in the adjacent columns. A component may be mounted to an opposing surface of the printed circuit such that it overlaps one of the gaps between the staggered contact pads. By mounting the component to portions of the first printed circuit that do not overlap the staggered contact pads, the risk of damaging the electrical component during solder reflow operations may be minimized.

05-16-2013

20130122754

PLUG CONNECTOR WITH EXTERNAL CONTACTS - A dual orientation connector having a connector tab with first and second major opposing sides and a plurality of electrical contacts carried by the connector tab. The plurality of contacts includes a first set of external contacts formed at the first major side and a second set of external contacts formed at the second major side. Each individual contact in the first plurality of contacts is electrically connected within the tab or body to a corresponding contact in the second plurality of contacts. In some embodiments contacts in the first and second pluralities of contacts that are directly opposite each other are coupled together. In some other embodiments, contacts in the first and second pluralities of contacts that are in a cater cornered relationship with each other are coupled together. The first plurality of contacts are symmetrically spaced with the second plurality of contacts and the connector tab is shaped to have 180 degree symmetry so that it can be inserted and operatively coupled to a corresponding receptacle connector in either of two insertion orientations.

05-16-2013

20130122848

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN BASE AND MOBILE STATIONS - A method and system for wireless communications between base and mobile stations use reference signals transmitted from base stations prior transmission of data signals. The reference signals are used to determine propagation characteristics of communication channels between me base and mobile stations and optimize, in real time, parameters of receivers of the mobile stations for processing the following data signals. Applications of the invention include wireless communication systems compliant with OFDMA, 3GPP LTE, RFN-OFDMA, OFDM, TDMA, and the like communication protocols.

05-16-2013

20130122948

Multi-Antenna Scheduling System and Method - A wireless communication method and system using virtual MIMO (“V-MIMO”) are provided. Post processing signal to interference and noise ratios (“SINR”) for a plurality of signals corresponding to a plurality of mobile terminals arranged as a V-MIMO group are estimated. The one of the plurality of mobile terminals having the highest post processing SINR is selected. Wireless communication for the selected mobile terminal is scheduled. The signal corresponding to the selected mobile terminal is cancelled. Post processing signal to interference and noise ratios (“SINR”) for the signals corresponding to the remaining mobile terminals is re-estimated. The one of the remaining mobile terminals having the highest post processing SINR is selected. Wireless communication for the selected remaining mobile terminal is scheduled.

05-16-2013

20130122971

POWER MANAGEMENT OF A RADIO DATA TRANSCEIVER - Methods and apparatuses for operating a wireless mobile station configured to communicate with a wireless access point are described. A first awake timer may be started in response to receiving a beacon signal from the wireless access point. The beacon signal may indicate that data is available or pending for the wireless mobile station. A second awake timer may be started in response to data received from the wireless access point. When the second awake timer expires, the wireless mobile station may return to the sleep state. In one embodiment, the first awake timer counts for a first period of time and the second awake timer counts for a second period of time which is shorter than the first period of time. The RF radio may be in a higher power state when the first and/or the second awake timers are counting. In one embodiment, the wireless mobile station and the wireless access points may be synchronized using target beacon transmission times of the beacon signal.

05-16-2013

20130124091

Graphical User Interface For Presenting Location Information - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for presenting location information. A first geographic area in which a device is currently located is estimated using a first positioning system. A second geographic area in which the device is currently located is estimated using a second positioning system. A first map view including an indication of the first geographic area on the first map view is presented if the first geographic area is contained within the second geographic area. A second map view including an indication of the second geographic area is presented if the first geographic area is not contained within the second geographic area.

05-16-2013

20130124305

CONTENT CONVERSION TRACKING - The present technology allows reliable and accurate tracking of conversions of invitational content by storing token identifying items of invitational content presented to the user within a cookie jar of a local occurrence of an online-store application. When a purchase or download is made from the online store, the cookies are sent to the online store, which can match the purchase or download with the tokens. Thus, conversions can be tracked as they are completed.

05-16-2013

20130124580

CONFIGURABLE OFFLINE DATA STORE - A method and apparatus for a configurable offline data store are described. For example, a method includes receiving a request for a first set of one or more records from a client application, wherein the first set is stored in a client data store and the client application also has access to a server data store unit of a server. The method further includes determining whether a first set of records in the client data store unit is valid; and upon determining the first set is valid, deleting those records of the first set in the client data store unit that are outdated. The method further includes upon determining the first set is not valid, deleting the first set; determining whether the record is in the client data store unit; and upon determining the record is in the client data store, transmitting a version of the record to the client application.

05-16-2013

20130124619

INSTALLING APPLICATIONS BASED ON A SEED APPLICATION FROM A SEPARATE DEVICE - Disclosed herein are systems, computer-implemented methods, and tangible computer-readable storage media for synchronizing applications between devices. The method displays, on a sharing device, a list of one or more applications which are available to share with other devices, and receives a selection, at the sharing device, of an application to share with a receiving device from the list of applications. The method then determines by the sharing device, sharing preferences of the selected application, creates an application package at the sharing device, based on the sharing preferences, and establishes a network connection from the sharing device to the receiving device. The system transmits the application package from the sharing device to the receiving device via the network connection.

05-16-2013

20130124696

APPLICATION PRODUCTS WITH IN-APPLICATION SUBSEQUENT FEATURE ACCESS USING NETWORK-BASED DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM - An improved system, device and method for accessing features of digital products with assistance from a content distribution system are disclosed. Third-party content can be submitted to and distributed by the content distribution system. In other words, the third-party content can be hosted (and distributed) by the content distribution system. A download interface can facilitate application programs operating on a client device to locally request and receive downloads from the content distribution system. Typically, a user of a client device would purchase an application program and then sometime later, using the application program, also purchase supplemental content for use with the application program. Once the supplemental content is purchased, it needs to be downloaded to the client device. Download policies are used to manage the download of supplemental content.

05-16-2013

20130124992

Tool for Navigating a Composite Presentation - A computer readable medium storing a media editing application for creating media presentations is described. The application includes a graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI has (1) a composite display area for displaying graphical representations of a set of media clips that are part of the composite presentation and (2) a navigation tool including several selectable navigation markers associated with several navigable locations in the composite presentation. The selection of a navigation marker causes the composite display area to present the navigable location in the composite presentation that is associated with the selected navigation marker.

05-16-2013

20130125003

ACTION REPRESENTATION DURING SLIDE GENERATION - Techniques for displaying object animations on a slide are disclosed. In accordance with these techniques, objects on a slide may be assigned actions when generating or editing the slide. The effects of the actions on the slide are depicted using one or more respective representations which represent the slide as it will appear after implementation of one or more corresponding actions.

05-16-2013

20130125384

Methods and Systems for Strengthening LCD Modules - Systems and methods for improving strength of thin displays, such as Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) displays, are disclosed. In one embodiment, a display can use an asymmetrical arrangement of layers (e.g., glass layers) where one layer is thicker than another layer. Different scribing techniques can also be used in singulating the different layers. The asymmetrical arrangement and/or scribing techniques can facilitate displays that are not only thin but also adequately strong to limit susceptibility to damage.

05-23-2013

20130126073

INTERNAL MOLD RELEASE - A method of manufacturing a releasable composite prepreg for compression, sheet, or bulk molding. The method includes mixing together a resin and a curing agent, adding a release agent to the resin and curing agent creating a releasable epoxy, applying a backing to the releasable epoxy; and positioning a plurality of fibers within the releasable epoxy creating a releasable composite prepreg. The releasable composite prepreg created through the method can be molded to create components without requiring application of an external mold release agent.

05-23-2013

20130127488

CONFIGURABLE TESTING PLATFORMS FOR CIRCUIT BOARDS WITH REMOVABLE TEST POINT PORTION - Circuit boards are provided that include a functional portion and at least one removable test point portion. The removable test point portion may include test points which are accessed to verify whether the functional portion is operating properly or whether installed electronic components are electrically coupled to the board. If multiple boards are manufactured together on a single panel (in which the individual boards are broken off), the test points can be placed on bridges (e.g., removable portions) that connect the individual boards together during manufacturing and testing. Configurable test boards are also provided that can be adjusted to accommodate circuit boards of different size and electrical testing requirements. Methods and systems for testing these circuit boards are also provided.

05-23-2013

20130127781

TOUCH PAD ELECTRODE DESIGN - A multi-touch capacitive touch sensor panel can be created using a substrate with column and row traces formed on separate layers of the substrate. The column and row traces can include sections extending from a central trace and forming a rectilinear trace pattern with sections of the columns and rows interdigitated with one another. The trace pattern can comprise a plurality of pixels arranged continuously across the sensor panel. In this manner, the sensor panel can provide a linear or near linear response to touches across the touch sensor panel.

05-23-2013

20130128799

Address Spoofing Prevention - The present invention relates to a method for securing a radio communication link establishment in a radio communication network comprising a local network and a secured network. The local network comprises at least a first terminal and a second terminal and at least the first terminal is capable of communicating with the secured network. The radio communication network implements layered protocol functions, comprising at least Layers 1, 2 and 3, the terminals being identifiable by their Layer 2 and 3 addresses. The secured network comprises a database comprising address correspondence information between Layer 2 and 3 addresses of terminals. In the method the first terminal authenticates itself with the secured network and then by using the Layer 3 address of the second terminal, obtaining the address correspondence information provided by the database and thereby determining the corresponding Layer 2 address of the second terminal. Then the first terminal establishes in the local network the radio communication link with the second terminal by using the Layer 2 address.

05-23-2013

20130128997

Adaptive Two-Dimensional Channel Interpolation - A method and apparatus for improving channel estimation within an OFDM communication system. Channel estimation in OFDM is usually performed with the aid of pilot symbols. The pilot symbols are typically spaced in time and frequency. The set of frequencies and times at which pilot symbols are inserted is referred to as a pilot pattern. In some cases, the pilot pattern is a diagonal-shaped lattice, either regular or irregular. The method first interpolates in the direction of larger coherence (time or frequency). Using these measurements, the density of pilot symbols in the direction of faster change will be increased thereby improving channel estimation without increasing overhead. As such, the results of the first interpolating step can then be used to assist the interpolation in the dimension of smaller coherence (time or frequency).

05-23-2013

20130129111

Data Retrieval Instructions Provided Using Radio Signals - Methods and devices are disclosed for controlling an electronic device using data transmitted over radio signals. In some embodiments, a radio source may embed instructions to control an electronic device into a radio signal. For example, the radio source may use the RDS communications protocol to transmit the instructions in an FM radio signal. The electronic device may receive the radio signal and may perform the instructions included in the radio signal. For example, the instructions can include commands to launch a web-browser application and direct a web-browser to retrieve metadata from a website.

05-23-2013

20130129204

Illuminant Estimation - In a method of chromagenic illuminant estimation pixels from mutually-corresponding images with different filtering are compared, a fraction of the brightest pixels being selected for a subsequent chromagenic estimation. The pixels may be at corresponding locations or they may correspond in that their mean brightness is in the same rank order. In one method, in which, in a first preprocessing stage, for a database of m lights E

05-23-2013

20130129209

Detecting Skin Tone in Images - One aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented in a method that includes sampling an image to generate a sample portion; evaluating pixels in the sample portion to determine whether the pixels correspond to skin tone colors; generating, based on the determination, a skin tone result indicating a confidence level that the received image includes a depiction of human skin; and providing the skin tone result to an image management application to indicate a likelihood the image depicts a human face.

05-23-2013

20130129246

Memory Compression Technique with Low Latency per Pixel - In an embodiment, a compression unit is provided which may perform compression of images with low latency and relatively little hardware. Similarly, a decompression unit may be provided which may decompress the images with low latency and hardware. In an embodiment, the transmission of compressed coefficients may be performed using less than two passes through the list of coefficients. During the first pass, the most significant coefficients may be transmitted and other significance groups may be identified as linked lists. The linked lists may then be traverse to send the other significance groups. In an embodiment, a color space conversion may be made to permit filtering of fewer color components than might be possible in the source color space.

05-23-2013

20130129986

TECHNIQUES FOR MARKING PRODUCT HOUSINGS - Techniques or processes for providing markings on products are disclosed. The markings provided on products can be textual and/or graphic. The techniques or processes can provide high resolution markings on surfaces that are flat or curved. In one embodiment, the products have housings and the markings are to be provided on the housings. For example, the housing for a particular product can include an outer housing surface and the markings can be provided on the outer housing surface.

05-23-2013

20130130629

Electronic Device Testing Using Radio Signals - Methods and devices are disclosed for controlling an electronic device using data transmitted over radio signals. In some embodiments, a radio source may embed instructions to control an electronic device into a radio signal. Alternatively, data relating to test parameters of other test equipment may be embedded into the radio signal. For example, the radio source may use the RDS communications protocol to transmit the instructions in an FM radio signal. In a testing environment, the electronic device may locally save the test parameters, and associate the test parameters with the results of a test.

05-23-2013

20130130655

Dynamic Foreign Agent-Home Agent Security Association Allocation for IP Mobility Systems - Utilizing the AAA infrastructure to dynamically allocate the various parameters needed to establish the security association between the Foreign Agent and the Home Agent. The present invention uses the AAA server as a central entity to dynamically generate and distribute the chosen security association parameters needed to support the Foreign Agent and Home Agent security association based on a request from the Foreign Agent. The AAA server can also dynamically assigns a unique SPI value to the Foreign Agent and Home Agent pairs. The various parameters that can be allocated in the present invention include a FA-HA shared secret key or a public/private key pair, an authentication algorithm and mode, a FA-HA secret key lifetime, and security parameter index or security index values. The present invention also can assist in making sure that the Foreign Agent and the Home Agent stay synchronized with respect to their security association.

05-23-2013

20130130668

Group Call Mangement - A method of managing a call group by a number of mobile devices in a mobile telecommunications network. The mobile telecommunications network includes a serving node in communication with the mobile devices. The method includes a network node identifying a radio access node adjacent a first radio access node. The method also includes a serving node creating the group call area on basis of the first and adjacent radio access nodes. The method also includes establishing a signalling channel within a cell corresponding to the adjacent radio access node. The signalling channel includes an identifier corresponding to the group call area. The radio access nodes, or base stations, that have established a data communications channel with the mobile communications device have traffic and signalling channels established therein and are marked as an active cell of the group call area.

05-23-2013

20130130730

MANAGING NOTIFICATION MESSAGES - Mobile devices each maintain a whitelist of application identifiers corresponding to applications that the user(s) of that mobile device wants to receive notification messages for and a blacklist of application identifiers corresponding to applications that the user(s) of the mobile device does not want to receive notification messages for. Each mobile device transmits its representations of the whitelist and blacklist to a certain one of a plurality of couriers that controls transmission of notification messages for that mobile device. Each notification message includes a mobile device identifier and an application identifier. Each courier processes a given notification message for a mobile device (e.g., deliver to that mobile device, drop, report as uninstalled to the sender) based on the application identifier included in the mobile device and the representations of the whitelist and blacklist for that mobile device.

05-23-2013

20130130803

ALLOWING MEDIA AND GAMING ENVIRONMENTS TO EFFECTIVELY INTERACT AND/OR AFFECT EACH OTHER - A gaming environment can be affected based on one or more aspects of a media environment. By way of example, gaming content and/or the gaming experience provided and/or suggested to an individual can be tailored based on his/her musical profile effectively obtained from the media environment associated with the individual. Similarly, a media environment can be affected by a gaming environment. By way of example, musical content provided and/or suggested to an individual can be based on his/her gaming profile. In addition, an open media-gaming environment can be provided where various media and gaming components can be integrated together. By way of example, an individual can identify one or more of his favorite songs to be presented for a game. The game can be packaged and/or sold without the song(s) but configured to receive and effectively provide them for game play.”

05-23-2013

20130131852

MEDIA PROCESSING METHOD AND DEVICE - A media processing system and device with improved power usage characteristics, improved audio functionality and improved media security is provided. Embodiments of the media processing system include an audio processing subsystem that operates independently of the host processor for long periods of time, allowing the host processor to enter a low power state while the audio data is being processed. Other aspects of the media processing system provide for enhanced audio effects such as mixing stored audio samples into real-time telephone audio. Still other aspects of the media processing system provide for improved media security due to the isolation of decrypted audio data from the host processor.

05-23-2013

20130132189

CONTENT CONVERSION TRACKING - The present technology allows reliable and accurate tracking of conversions of invitational content by storing token identifying items of invitational content presented to the user within a cookie jar of a local occurrence of an online-store application. When a purchase or download is made from the online store, the cookies are sent to the online store, which can match the purchase or download with the tokens. Thus, conversions can be tracked as they are completed.

05-23-2013

20130132391

PREDICTING CONTENT AND CONTEXT PERFORMANCE BASED ON PERFORMANCE HISTORY OF USERS - Systems and methods are provided for selecting contexts for new invitational content and invitational content for new contexts. In particular, a performance history of delivered invitational content in known contexts is combined with similarity measures for the delivered invitational content, with respect to a new invitational content, to generate a list of potential contexts for the new invitational content. Similarly, a performance history of in known contexts with delivered invitational content can combined with similarity measures for known contexts, with respect to a new context, to generate a list of potential content for the new context. Further, a combination of these methods can be used to pair new invitational content with new contexts.

05-23-2013

20130132439

ORGANIZING VERSIONING ACCORDING TO PERMISSIONS - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for storing data according to permissions. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of identifying a version of a data item to be stored; determining permissions associated with the version of the data item; and storing the version of the data item at a storage location that is based on the determined permissions.

05-23-2013

20130132500

SELECTION OF A MASTER IN A PEER-TO-PEER NETWORK ENVIRONMENT - A system, apparatus and method for selecting master devices in a peer-to-peer communication environment. Devices select a master to facilitate their synchronization, and rendezvous according to a schedule of availability windows broadcast by the master as part of periodic synchronization frames. Devices capable of serving as master advertise their selection metrics, which are converted into a master preference value by a selection algorithm applied uniformly by all devices in the environment. Individual devices may identify the best local master and synchronize to it, yielding a cluster of synchronized peers. Clusters may then be synchronized to masters at further range. Individual devices conserve power by being automatically synchronized instead of having to individually discover other devices and services, and can power off their radios without sacrificing discoverability. Synchronization and peer-to-peer communication as provided herein coexists with other device demands, such as Bluetooth® operations, infrastructure-based communications and so on.

05-23-2013

20130132501

SYNCHRONIZATION OF DEVICES IN A PEER-TO-PEER NETWORK ENVIRONMENT - A system, apparatus and method for synchronizing devices in a peer-to-peer communication environment. Devices select a master to facilitate their synchronization, and rendezvous according to a schedule of availability windows broadcast by the master. Devices may attend some or all of the availability windows, during which they may send and receive unicast and/or multicast messages. Individual devices conserve power by being automatically synchronized instead of having to individually discover other devices and services, and can power off their radios without sacrificing discoverability. Synchronization and peer-to-peer communication as provided herein coexists with other device demands, such as Bluetooth® operations, infrastructure-based communications and so on.

05-23-2013

20130132502

SELECTION OF SYNCHRONIZATION STATIONS IN A PEER-TO-PEER NETWORK ENVIRONMENT - A system, apparatus and method for selecting one or more synchronization stations, or masters, in a peer-to-peer communication environment. Synchronization (or sync) stations broadcast periodic synchronization frames to advertise future availability windows, during which devices rendezvous for discovery and communication. Devices that can act as sync stations advertise preference values, which indicate their preference or suitability for the role. All devices execute the same algorithm to sort the preference values and identify a root sync station and any number of branch sync stations; leaf devices synchronize with the root or a branch sync station. This passive synchronization scheme allows individual devices to conserve power, because they need not actively discover other devices and services, and can power off their radios for periods of time without sacrificing discoverability. Synchronization and peer-to-peer communication as provided herein coexist with other device demands, such as Bluetooth® operations and infrastructure-based communications.

05-23-2013

20130132653

DATA PARTITIONING SCHEME FOR NON-VOLATILE MEMORIES - Systems and methods are disclosed for partitioning data for storage in a non-volatile memory (“NVM”), such as flash memory. In some embodiments, a priority may be assigned to data being stored, and the data may be logically partitioned based on the priority. For example, a file system may identify a logical address within a first predetermined range for higher priority data and within a second predetermined range for lower priority data, such using a union file system. Using the logical address, a NVM driver can determine the priority of data being stored and can process (e.g., encode) the data based on the priority. The NVM driver can store an identifier in the NVM along with the data, and the identifier can indicate the processing techniques used on the associated data.

05-23-2013

20130132781

Program Counter (PC) Trace - In one embodiment, an integrated circuit comprises a first processor configured to output program counter (PC) trace records, wherein PC trace records provide data indicating the PCs of instructions retired by the first processor. The integrated circuit further comprises a second source of trace records, and a trace unit coupled to receive the PC trace records from the first processor and the trace records from the second source. The trace unit comprises a trace memory into which the trace unit is configured to store the PC trace records and trace records from the second source. The trace unit is configured to interleave the PC trace records and the trace records from the second source in the trace memory according to the order of receipt of the records.

05-23-2013

20130132934

APPLICATON INTERFACE ON MULTIPLE PROCESSORS - A method and an apparatus that execute a parallel computing program in a programming language for a parallel computing architecture are described. The parallel computing program is stored in memory in a system with parallel processors. The parallel computing program is stored in a memory to allocate threads between a host processor and a GPU. The programming language includes an API to allow an application to make calls using the API to allocate execution of the threads between the host processor and the GPU. The programming language includes host function data tokens for host functions performed in the host processor and kernel function data tokens for compute kernel functions performed in one or more compute processors, e.g. GPUs or CPUs, separate from the host processor.

05-23-2013

20130133047

INTERWORKJNG BETWEEN FIRSTAND SECOND AUTHENTICATION DOMAINS - To interwork between a first authentication domain and a second authentication domain, a bridge module performs a first authentication procedure in the first authentication domain for a mobile station, wherein the first authentication domain is part of a wireless access network. Based on information collected in the first authentication procedure, the bridge module performs a second authentication procedure is performed, on behalf of the mobile station, in the second authentication domain.

05-23-2013

20130133947

Touch Sensor Back Plane Ground Connection - Touch sensor panels can use touch sensors to detect the presence and location of a touch event. In order for the touch sensors to function reliably, the back plane of the touch sensor panel should be grounded. Supplying this ground connection can provide a uniform electrical reference point from which changes in voltage and capacitance due to a touch event can be measured. Without this ground connection, touch sensors may misrepresent the touch event. Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide different means for providing a ground connection for the back plane of a touch sensor panel. These embodiments are designed to provide a reliable ground connection even in the presence of various failure conditions.

05-30-2013

20130135198

Electronic Devices With Gaze Detection Capabilities - An electronic device may have gaze detection capabilities that allow the device to detect when a user is looking at the device. The electronic device may implement a power management scheme using the results of gaze detection operations. When the device detects that the user has looked away from the device, the device may dim a display screen and may perform other suitable actions. The device may pause a video playback operation when the device detects that the user has looked away from the device. The device may resume the video playback operation when the device detects that the user is looking towards the device. Gaze detector circuitry may be powered down when sensor data indicates that gazed detection readings will not be reliable or are not needed.

05-30-2013

20130135213

SENSING CAPACITANCE CHANGES OF A HOUSING OF AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE - Methods and apparatuses are disclosed that allow measurement of a user's interaction with the housing of an electronic device. Some embodiments may measure the electrical characteristics of a housing of an electrical device, where the housing is capable of being temporarily deformed by the user's interaction. By measuring the electrical characteristics of the housing, such as the housing's capacitance, the user's interaction with the housing can be measured in a manner that is independent of the user's electrical characteristics and/or in a manner that may allow the pressure applied to the housing to be quantified.

05-30-2013

20130136017

OFDM Communications System - A communications system comprising a base station, and a plurality of terminals served by that base station which may include an ad-hoc network of terminals. Information from the base station or transmitting terminal is transported to the receiving terminals in the form of symbols in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed format. Each terminal has means for measuring a channel dispersion and rate of phase variation corresponding to multipath signal reception for that terminal and for reporting that dispersion and variation measure to the transmitting station. In response to the channel dispersion and phase change measurements, the base station or transmitting terminal is arranged to provide, for groups of terminals having a similar channel dispersion, respective symbol and prefix lengths on the basis of the dispersion measurement of that group of terminals.

Adaptive Two-Dimensional Channel Interpolation - A method and apparatus for improving channel estimation within an OFDM communication system. Channel estimation in OFDM is usually performed with the aid of pilot symbols. The pilot symbols are typically spaced in time and frequency. The set of frequencies and times at which pilot symbols are inserted is referred to as a pilot pattern. In some cases, the pilot pattern is a diagonal-shaped lattice, either regular or irregular. The method first interpolates in the direction of larger coherence (time or frequency). Using these measurements, the density of pilot symbols in the direction of faster change will be increased thereby improving channel estimation without increasing overhead. As such, the results of the first interpolating step can then be used to assist the interpolation in the dimension of smaller coherence (time or frequency).

05-30-2013

20130136289

LOW-PROFILE SPEAKER ARRANGEMENTS FOR COMPACT ELECTRONIC DEVICES - A portable electronic device that provides audio sound output from multiple internal speakers to a common output audio opening in a housing of the portable electronic device is disclosed. In one embodiment, the multiple internal speakers are provided in close proximity to one another, such as adjacent to one another, and serve to produce audio sound pertaining to different audio channels. The sound (i.e., pressure waves) produced by each of the internal speakers is directed into a respective acoustic chamber and output via the output audio opening in the housing. Accordingly, the acoustic chambers for the multiple internal speakers can each direct their audio sound output to the same output audio opening in the housing. The respective acoustic chambers can be formed adjacent to one another with a structural barrier serving to separate the distinct acoustic chambers.

05-30-2013

20130136967

CURVED BATTERY CELLS FOR PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICES - The disclosed embodiments relate to the manufacture of a battery cell. The battery cell includes a set of layers including a cathode with an active coating, a separator, and an anode with an active coating. The battery cell also includes a pouch enclosing the layers, wherein the pouch is flexible. The layers may be wound to create a jelly roll prior to sealing the layers in the flexible pouch. A curve may also be formed in the battery cell by applying a pressure of at least 0.13 kilogram-force (kgf) per square millimeter to the layers using a set of curved plates applying a temperature of about 85° C. to the layers.

05-30-2013

20130137462

Location Sharing - Geographic location data is sent from a first device to a second device with a modified message to signal the presence of geographic location data associated with the message. The message can include (or attach) the geographic location data or file, or the message can include a link to a network-based resource which the second device can use to obtain the geographic location data. In some implementations, when a user of the first device views a location on a map display of the first device, a graphical user interface is presented to allow the user to select an option to share the geographic location with the second device. The second device receives geographic location data or a link from the first device which can trigger a map display on the second device showing the location of the first device and, optionally, the location of the second device.

05-30-2013

20130138627

Quick Find for Data Fields - Methods, program products, and systems for automatically searching data in multiple data fields are described. A user can view data retrieved from a database and formatted based on a layout. While viewing the data, the user can perform a search using one or more search terms. A system can automatically examine the database and identify on which tables and on which data fields of the tables to perform the search. The system can identify searchable tables and data fields by analyzing the database schema as well as characteristics of the tables and data fields.

05-30-2013

20130138861

ADAPTER FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICES - An adapter for connecting an accessory to a portable electronic device includes a first connector compatible with a connector of the portable electronic device and a second connector compatible with a connector of the accessory. The connectors of the accessory and the portable electronic device are otherwise incompatible with each other. The adapter provides two levels of authentication. First, the adapter authenticates itself to the portable electronic device. If this first authentication is successful, then the adapter authenticates the accessory to the adapter.

05-30-2013

20130138973

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DATA OBFUSCATION BASED ON DISCRETE LOGARITHM PROPERTIES - Disclosed herein are systems, computer-implemented methods, and computer-readable storage media for obfuscating data based on a discrete logarithm. A system practicing the method identifies a clear value in source code, replaces the clear value in the source code with a transformed value based on the clear value and a discrete logarithm, and updates portions of the source code that refer to the clear value such that interactions with the transformed value provide a same result as interactions with the clear value. This discrete logarithm approach can be implemented in three variations. The first variation obfuscates some or all of the clear values in loops. The second variation obfuscates data in a process. The third variation obfuscates data pointers, including tables and arrays. The third variation also preserves the ability to use pointer arithmetic.

05-30-2013

20130139064

METHODS FOR MANAGING AUTHORITY DESIGNATION OF GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACES - According to one aspect, a graphics management system receives a first message from a first process for granting one or more rights to a second process for accessing a GUI element owned by the first process. In response, the graphics management system transmits a second message to the second process, the second message offering the one or more rights to the second process. The graphics management system receives a third message from the second process indicating an acceptance of the offer. Thereafter, the graphics management system restricts access of the GUI element by the second process based on the one or more rights accepted by the second process.

05-30-2013

20130139173

MULTI-CORE RESOURCE UTILIZATION PLANNING - Techniques for multi-core resource utilization planning are provided. An agent is deployed on each core of a multi-core machine. The agents cooperate to perform one or more tests. The tests result in measurements for performance and thermal characteristics of each core and each communication fabric between the cores. The measurements are organized in a resource utilization map and the map is used to make decisions regarding core assignments for resources.

05-30-2013

20130139962

METHODS FOR CONTAINING LIQUID MATERIALS AND MAINTAINING PART ALIGNMENT DURING ASSEMBLY OPERATIONS - Components may be interconnected using liquid materials such as liquid adhesive and solder. To prevent undesired movement between the components during the assembly process and to prevent the liquid material from flowing into undesired areas, an attachment and dam structure may be provided. The structure may be formed from a substrate such as a flexible polymer film coated with adhesive. When interposed between first and second components, the structure attaches the first and second components and prevents movement between the first and second components. The structure may have one or more edges adjacent to the liquid material to block the liquid material from flowing while the liquid material is in its liquid state. Once the components have been connected, the liquid material can be solidified.

06-06-2013

20130141035

PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE POWER MANAGER WITH CURRENT LIMIT FEEDBACK CONTROL LOOP MODIFICATION FOR STABILIZING AN EXTERNAL POWER SUPPLY - A portable electronic device has a battery to provide power to operate the device, a connector including a power supply pin to be coupled to an external power supply, and a power manager having a battery charger circuit that draws power through the power supply pin to charge the battery. The power manager has a current limit feedback control loop that limits the drawn current in accordance with a predetermined output current rating of the external power supply. The power manager automatically changes the behavior of its control loop to stabilize operation of the coupled external power supply. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

06-06-2013

20130141073

CHARGE RECYCLING A 1 OF N NDL GATE WITH A TIME VARYING POWER SUPPLY - This disclosure describes a time varying power supply that may include a resonator circuit comprising an inductor having first and second terminals, a first capacitor coupled to the first terminal, and a second capacitor coupled to the second terminal, where the first capacitor produces a first time varying power supply output and wherein the second capacitor produces a second time varying power supply output. The time varying power supply may further include an exciter circuit comprising a first PFET and a first NFET coupled to the first terminal and a second PFET and a second NFET coupled to the second terminal. The first and second PFETs and the first and second NFETs may be coupled to a corresponding one of four non-overlapping clock phases.

06-06-2013

20130141328

Dynamic Interpretation of User Input in a Portable Electronic Device - The embodiments describe both the interpreting and modifying the interpretation of an input event to an electronic device having limited user input resources. The input event interpretation can be based in part on a connection state of the device. In some cases, the interpretation of the input event can also be based upon an indication of a current operating state of the device in addition to or exclusive of the connection state. Furthermore, in some embodiments, an operating state of the portable electronic device can be resolved based in part on the connection state of the portable electronic device.

06-06-2013

20130141450

Facilitating Caching in an Image-Processing System - Embodiments of the present invention provide a system for performing caching in an image-processing system. The system starts by receiving a filtering query for resources in a cache. The system then returning a subcache in response to the filtering query. Upon receiving a resource query for resources in the subcache, the system performs the filtering query on the cache, populates the subcache with addresses of resources returned by the filtering query until the resource query is satisfied, and returns available resources from the subcache in response to the resource query.

06-06-2013

20130141612

Adjusting Time Metadata of Digital Media Items - Methods, apparatuses, and systems for adjusting time metadata of digital media items. A digital image captured at a location is associated with a time of capture and a location of capture. It is determined that a time of capture of the digital image is in a preset time zone that is different from a time zone of the location. In response to the determining, multiple locations are provided, each being associated with a respective time zone including a time zone of the location. A selection of a location is received and the time of capture is adjusted based on a time zone associated with the selected location.

06-06-2013

20130141861

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING A SYSTEM-ON-A-SUBSTRATE - This relates to systems and methods for providing a system-on-a-substrate. In some embodiments, the necessary components for an entire system (e.g., a processor, memory, accelerometers, I/O circuitry, or any other suitable components) can be fabricated on a single microchip in “bare die” form. The die can, for example, be coupled to suitable flash memory through a substrate and flexible printed circuit board (“flex”). In some embodiments, the flex can extend past the substrate, die, or both, to allow additional, relatively large components to be coupled to the flex. In some embodiments, the die can be coupled to the flash memory through the flex and without a substrate. In some embodiments, component test points can be placed on the flash memory side of the substrate.

06-06-2013

20130141870

INTERNAL FRAME OPTIMIZED FOR STIFFNESS AND HEAT TRANSFER - A thin portable electronic device with a display is described. The components of the electronic device can be arranged in stacked layers within an external housing where each of the stacked layers is located at a different height relative to the thickness of the device. One of the stacked layers can be internal metal frame. The internal metal frame can be configured to act as a heat spreader for heat generating components located in layers adjacent to the internal frame. Further, the internal metal frame can be configured to add to the overall structural stiffness of the device. In addition, the internal metal frame can be configured to provide attachment points for device components, such as the display, so that the device components can be coupled to the external housing via the internal metal frame.

06-06-2013

20130142031

Adaptive Time Diversity and Spatial Diversity for OFDM - An adaptable orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing system (OFDM) that uses a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) to having OFDM signals transmitted either in accordance with time diversity to reducing signal fading or in accordance with spatial diversity to increase the data rate. Sub-carriers are classified for spatial diversity transmission or for time diversity transmission based on the result of a comparison between threshold values and at least one of three criteria. The criteria includes a calculation of a smallest eigen value of a frequency channel response matrix and a smallest element of a diagonal of the matrix and a ratio of the largest and smallest eigen values of the matrix.

06-06-2013

20130142109

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR A WIRELESS MULTI-HOP RELAY NETWORK - In a wireless multi-hop relay network arranged in a tree topology, the base station and one or more relay stations are associated as a virtual base station (VBS). The base station and each relay station have a unique virtual base station identifier (VBS-ID) associated with the path defined by the base station and the one or more relay stations. a relay station in the branch uses its VBS-ID for communicating with an attached subscriber station (e.g. a mobile station) such that communications between the base station and subscriber station occur via the VBS. Subscriber station data communications are relayed between the base station and the one or more relay stations over the VBS via a tunnel connection. The VBS is autoconfigurable. Mobility for subscriber stations and relay stations is provided through reconfiguration of VBS's.

06-06-2013

20130142147

PUSH NOTIFICATION SERVICE - Gateway devices maintain presence information for various mobile devices. Each gateway is associated with a zone and manages presence information only for mobile devices associated with that zone. Courier devices back-propagate presence information for the mobile devices to respective gateways based at least on the respective zone associated with each mobile device. The gateways and couriers are dynamically configured such that messages can be pushed from a provider application to a mobile device via any gateway and any courier.

06-06-2013

20130142172

Method and System for Maintaining Multiple PDN Network Connection During Inter-Technology Handover in Idle Mode - Supporting an optimized idle mode handoff of user equipment from a 3GPP to a non-3GPP system. Namely, during an idle mode registration of the user equipment with the non-3GPP system, the user equipment may provide an indication to the access node on the non-3GPP system so that the access point in that non-3GPP system contacts the appropriate entity (HSS or AAA) on the home network for the user equipment to download the addresses of the multiple PDN gateway addresses that are currently in use by the user equipment. This indication to the non-3GPP access node, the contact message from the access node to the home network, and the response from the home network to the access node on the non-3GPP system provide the access node with sufficient information to maintain multiple PDN connectivity to the user equipment during an idle mode handover.

06-06-2013

20130143537

Image Selection for an Incoming Call - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, are described for selecting an image of a caller associated with an incoming call. In one aspect, a method includes identifying a caller associated with an incoming call from an originating telecommunications device. The method also includes locating plurality images of the identified caller, and randomly displaying on the mobile telecommunications device's display screen one or more images from among the located plurality images of the identified caller.

06-06-2013

20130143596

SYNCHRONIZING MOBILE AND VEHICLE DEVICES - Location information is received at a mobile device from the memory of a vehicle device. The mobile device is updated based on the location information. Sensor data is received from at least one sensor measuring movement of the mobile device, and an estimated location of the mobile device is calculated based at least in part on the location information and the sensor data.

06-06-2013

20130143623

FEEDER CABLE REDUCTION - The present disclosure allows transmission of multiple signals between masthead electronics and base housing electronics in a base station environment. At least some of the received signals from the multiple antennas are translated to being centered about different center frequencies, such that the translated signals may be combined into a composite signal including each of the received signals. The composite signal is then sent over a single feeder cable to base housing electronics, wherein the received signals are separated and processed by transceiver circuitry. Prior to being provided to the transceiver circuitry, those signals that were translated from being centered about one frequency to another may be retranslated to being centered about the original center frequency.

06-06-2013

20130144464

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR INTEGRATING A PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH A BICYCLE - Systems, methods, and devices are provided to sense unauthorized use of a vehicle. For example, an electronic device may include sensors to detect an operational parameter of a bicycle and communications circuitry to couple the electronic device to a second electronic device associated with user of the bicycle according to authorization information. Control circuitry may determine when the bicycle is in operation based at least in part on the detected operational parameter, identify whether the second electronic device is substantially within a communicative proximity of the electronic device when the bicycle is in operation, and generate an alert indicating unauthorized operation when the second electronic device is not identified as substantially within the communicative proximity of the electronic device.

06-06-2013

20130144772

JOURNALING ON MOBILE DEVICES - A journaling subsystem on a mobile device stores event data related to applications or other subsystems running on the mobile device. The event data can be stored and indexed in a journal database so that a timeline of past events can be reconstructed in response to search queries. In some implementations, a timeline can be reconstructed with markers on a map display based on search results. When the user interacts with a marker on the map display, the event data collected by the mobile device is made available to the user.

06-06-2013

20130144789

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING CREDITS VIA A MOBILE DEVICE - System and method for delivering upon request credits having monetary value to a mobile device using a communications network. An account of available credit for the user of the mobile device is maintained and authorization to issue credit is generated when a request for credit for the mobile device is received and there is available credit in the account associated with the mobile device equal to or greater than the requested credit. Credit may be offset, or sponsored, by one or more token providers and issued to the user, upon authorization, to enable the user to use the mobile device to purchase items, e.g., at a point of sale terminal.

06-06-2013

20130145042

Proximity Detection for Media Proxies - A method of detecting proximity between a media proxy and a client uses a proximity probe to query a plurality of media proxies, forcing the media proxies to respond to a proximity server. The proximity server uses an algorithm to determine which media proxy is closest to the client based on the responses. In an alternate embodiment, the same sorts of proximity probes may be used to determine if two media endpoints have a direct connection such that they may bypass a media proxy.

06-06-2013

20130145057

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN A HOST DEVICE AND AN ACCESSORY USING MULTIPLE-ENDPOINT IDENTIFICATION - Techniques for facilitating communication between a portable media device (PMD) and an accessory via multiple communication paths. The accessory has a unique accessory identifier that it can send to the PMD upon establishing a connection via each communication path. The PMD can determine whether the same accessory is connected via multiple communication paths based on the accessory identifier received via each communication path. The PMD can route information to the accessory and control routing of information from the accessory based on the set of communication paths that are currently connected and can dynamically change the routing as communication paths are connected and disconnected.

06-06-2013

20130145167

Optimized Integrity Verification Procedures - Some embodiments of the invention provide a method of verifying the integrity of digital content. At a source of the digital content, the method generates a signature for the digital content by applying a hashing function to a particular portion of the digital content, where the particular portion is less than the entire digital content. The method supplies the signature and the digital content to a device. At the device, the method applies the hashing function to the particular portion of the digital content in order to verify the supplied signature, and thereby verifies the integrity of the supplied digital content.

06-06-2013

20130145275

SYSTEM CONNECTIONS AND USER INTERFACES - This disclosure relates to methods and systems to allow, in one embodiment, automatic access from one system to other systems which include an operating system that includes a user login process. In one embodiment, a method includes logging into, automatically in response to starting a first data processing system, a second data processing system at least as a guest user of the second data processing system which has a storage volume storing data and displaying a user interface object on a display device of the first data processing system, the user interface object corresponding to at least one of the second data processing system and the storage volume to allow at least one of a search to be performed or a browsing to be performed of the data stored on the storage volume.

06-06-2013

20130145310

Portable Electronic Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Displaying Electronic Lists and Documents - In a computer-implemented method, a portion of an electronic document is displayed on the touch screen display. The displayed portion of the electronic document has a vertical position in the electronic document. An object is detected on or near the displayed portion of the electronic document. In response to detecting the object on or near the displayed portion of the electronic document, a vertical bar is displayed on top of the displayed portion of the electronic document. The vertical bar has a vertical position on top of the displayed portion of the electronic document that corresponds to the vertical position in the electronic document of the displayed portion of the electronic document. After a predetermined condition is met, display of the vertical bar is ceased. The vertical bar is displayed for a predetermined time period when the portion of the electronic document is initially displayed.

06-06-2013

20130145456

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTHENTICATING CODE EXECUTING ON COMPUTER SYSTEM - A code authentication architecture is used to sign code by adding one or more digital signatures to it. The digital signatures identify what authority signed the code, what the code contains, what type of program the code is, or other identifying information. When the signed code is later executed on a computer system, its identity is obtained by accessing encrypted information of the code stored on disk. The architecture then determines whether the identity satisfies at least one requirement imposed on the code for some purpose. If the code has been altered from when it was signed or it fails to satisfy a requirement imposed, the code will not have a valid identity. In addition to verifying the identity of the code, the architecture also validates executing code immediately responsible for managing the code and additional executing code in a chain of hosts responsible for managing one another.

06-06-2013

20130147330

METHODS FOR FORMING FIBER-REINFORCED STRUCTURES WITH SEGMENTS FORMED FROM DIFFERENT TYPES OF FIBER - Fiber-reinforced structures for use in forming support structures and electronic device housing members may include multiple types of fiber. A first portion of the structures formed from a first type of fiber such as glass fiber may be radio transparent. A second portion of the structures formed from a second type of fiber such as carbon fiber may be more rigid than the first type of fiber and may be radio opaque. The second portion of the structures may be used to selectively add strength to the fiber-reinforced structures. The first portion of the structures may be used to maintain radio transparency for compatibility with wireless electronic device operations. The fiber-reinforced structures may be formed by rolling a sheet of prepreg material that includes a first area with the first type of fiber and a second area with the second type of fiber.

06-13-2013

20130147383

Active Enclosure for Computing Device - A computing device is disclosed. The computing device includes a housing having an illuminable portion. The computing device also includes a light device disposed inside the housing. The light device is configured to illuminate the illuminable portion.

DISPLAYS WITH MINIMIZED CROSSTALK - Display ground plane structures may contain slits. Image pixel electrodes in the display may be arranged in rows and columns. Image pixels in the display may be controlled using gate lines that are associated with the rows and data lines that are associated with the columns. An electric field may be produced by each image pixel electrode that extends through a liquid crystal layer to an associated portion of the ground plane. The slits in the ground plane may have a slit width. Data lines may be located sufficiently below the ground plane and sufficiently out of alignment with the slits to minimize crosstalk from parasitic electric fields. A three-column inversion scheme may be used when driving data line signals into the display, so that pairs of pixels that straddle the slits are each driven with a common polarity. Gate line scanning patterns may be used that enhance display uniformity.

06-13-2013

20130148288

ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH AN INCREASED FLEXURAL RIGIDITY - An electronic device including at least one electronic component, such as a processor and a housing enclosing the at least one electronic component. The housing including a top skin forming an outer surface of the housing, a bottom skin forming an inner surface of the housing and facing the at least one electronic component, and a core sandwiched by the top skin and the bottom skin. The core is made from a first material having a first modulus of elasticity and the top skin and the bottom skin are made from a second material having a second modulus of elasticity, the second modulus greater than the first. The inner surface of the housing is positioned above the at least one electronic component such that a clearance level is defined between the inner surface of the housing and the at least one electronic component.

06-13-2013

20130148559

Power Management and Distributed Scheduling for Uplink Transmissions in Wireless Systems - To schedule uplink transmission time slots for a collection of mobile communication devices, a set of base station target interference patterns is associated with base stations. A time slot target interference pattern is assigned for each time slot and it repeats after several time slots. The time slot target interference pattern in a given time slot specifies the interference allowed by each time slot to a given base station by any single mobile. A priority index may be determined for each time slot for each mobile associated with the particular base station. The priority index may be based, in part, on a determined correlation between the time-slot target interference patterns and a potential interference profile of a mobile to which a time slot is to be allocated. A mobile's throughput requirement, the throughput already received over a specified past duration, the system fairness requirement, as well as the amount of data available for transmission are also used for evaluating the priority index.

06-13-2013

20130148636

Wireless electronic device with antenna switching circuitry - A wireless electronic device may include antennas formed at different locations on the device. The wireless electronic device may include transceivers that are used to wirelessly communicate in different frequency bands by transmitting and receiving radio-frequency signals in the frequency bands. The transceivers may include Wi-Fi® transceivers and cellular transceivers such as Long Term Evolution transceivers. The wireless electronic device may include antenna switching circuitry interposed between the transceivers and the antennas. The wireless electronic device may include control circuitry that controls the antenna switching circuitry to ensure that radio-frequency transmissions in adjacent frequency bands are routed to different antennas. By routing radio-frequency transmissions in adjacent frequency bands to different antennas, self-interference between communications in the adjacent frequency bands may be reduced. Self-interference may also be reduced by performing time division multiplexing to isolate radio-frequency signals that are transmitted in adjacent frequency bands.

06-13-2013

20130148754

Performance for a multiple antenna beamforming cellular network - The present disclosure provides for an improved application of signal strength weightings in an SDMA sectored cellular network. The improved signal strength weightings application is conducted through the improved selection of weightings from a new codebook subset or by the selection of weightings from a larger codebook subset. In a further embodiment, an antenna beam index or bit map can be used to select the best beam(s) in an SDMA sectored cellular network. In another embodiment, a field or factor in an uplink or downlink transmission packet can designate which directional transmission beam is best suited for the transmission or when the directional transmission beam should be activated.

06-13-2013

20130148759

Weighting Matrix Selection Based on Information Aquired from Remote Station - The present disclosure provides for an improved application of signal strength weightings in an SDMA sectored cellular network. The improved signal strength weightings application is conducted through the improved selection of weightings from a new codebook subset or by the selection of weightings from a larger codebook subset. In a further embodiment, an antenna beam index or bit map can be used to select the best beam(s) in an SDMA sectored cellular network. In another embodiment, a field or factor in an uplink or downlink transmission packet can designate which directional transmission beam is best suited for the transmission or when the directional transmission beam should be activated.

06-13-2013

20130148887

Image Preprocessing - A method performed by a software process executing on a computer system includes selecting a first set of pixels in a digital image in the RGB color space. The pixels are selected such that, for each pixel in the set, a red component is a highest value component and a blue component is a lowest value component. The method also includes identifying at least a subset of the first set as a region of orange hue in the digital image.

06-13-2013

20130149584

BATTERY ASSEMBLY FOR USE IN AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE - A battery assembly for use in an electronic device. The battery assembly may include a battery cell, a battery connector for providing power from the battery cell to the electronic device, and a flex circuit electrically coupling the battery cell to the electronic device. The battery connector may be located adjacent the battery cell, and may include one or more alignment mechanisms so that conductive pads connector align properly with corresponding conductive elements of the electronic device. The battery cell may be fixed to the electronic device using an adhesive layer placed between the cell and the electronic device. A tab may extend beyond the periphery of the battery cell to allow a user to pull or peal the battery cell from the electronic device for replacement or repair.

06-13-2013

20130149911

PLUG CONNECTOR WITH EXTERNAL CONTACTS - A dual orientation connector having a connector tab with first and second major opposing sides and a plurality of electrical contacts carried by the connector tab. The plurality of contacts includes a first set of external contacts formed at the first major side and a second set of external contacts formed at the second major side. Each individual contact in the first plurality of contacts is electrically connected within the tab or body to a corresponding contact in the second plurality of contacts. In some embodiments contacts in the first and second pluralities of contacts that are directly opposite each other are coupled together. In some other embodiments, contacts in the first and second pluralities of contacts that are in a cater cornered relationship with each other are coupled together. The first plurality of contacts are symmetrically spaced with the second plurality of contacts and the connector tab is shaped to have 180 degree symmetry so that it can be inserted and operatively coupled to a corresponding receptacle connector in either of two insertion orientations.

06-13-2013

20130149975

System and methods for performing antenna transmit diversity - A wireless electronic device may include switching circuits that perform time division duplexing by toggling between a first configuration in which radio-frequency signals received from antennas are routed to the transceivers and a second configuration in which the antennas are coupled to antenna switching circuitry. The antenna switching circuitry may receive radio-frequency transmission signals from the transceivers and route the transmission signals to a selected one of the antennas. The antenna switching circuitry may be controlled by control circuitry such as baseband circuitry and/or storage and processing circuitry on the device. The antenna switching circuitry may be controlled to accommodate antenna transmit diversity without affecting reception of radio-frequency signals, because the switching circuits that perform time division duplexing may form signal reception paths that are unaffected by the configuration of the antenna switching circuitry.

06-13-2013

20130151699

PERSONAL ITEMS NETWORK, AND ASSOCIATED METHODS - A personal items network, comprising a plurality of items, each item having a wireless communications port for coupling in network with every other item, each item having a processor for determining if any other item in the network is no longer linked to the item, each item having an indicator for informing a user that an item has left the network, wherein a user may locate lost items. A method for locating lost personal items, comprising: linking at least two personal items together on a network; and depositing one or both of time and location information in an unlost item when one of the items is lost out of network.

06-13-2013

20130151729

THROTTLING TO REDUCE SYNCHRONIZATIONS OF EXCESSIVELY CHANGING DATA - Embodiments of the invention determine if a user preference or other piece of data is being synchronized too frequently. If the user preference is being synchronized too frequently, synchronization of the user preference is throttled to prevent it from synchronizing for some number of synchronization cycles. If the user preference rarely changes, the user preference is rewarded by throttling it less often.

06-13-2013

20130151781

Cache Implementing Multiple Replacement Policies - In an embodiment, a cache stores tags for cache blocks stored in the cache. Each tag may include an indication identifying which of two or more replacement policies supported by the cache is in use for the corresponding cache block, and a replacement record indicating the status of the corresponding cache block in the replacement policy. Requests may include a replacement attribute that identifies the desired replacement policy for the cache block accessed by the request. If the request is a miss in the cache, a cache block storage location may be allocated to store the corresponding cache block. The tag associated with the cache block storage location may be updated to include the indication of the desired replacement policy, and the cache may manage the block in accordance with the policy. For example, in an embodiment, the cache may support both an LRR and an LRU policy.

06-13-2013

20130151910

SYMBOL ENCODING FOR TOLERANCE TO SINGLE BYTE ERRORS - The present invention provides a method that protects symbol types by characterizing symbols as one of two types—DATA or NON_DATA, generating a symbol characterization bit, placing the symbol characterization bit at both ends of the symbol, and transmitting the symbol with the symbol characterization bits at both ends. Thus, a single byte error may affect a type bit in two consecutive symbols, and will affect one or the other of the type bits in a single symbol, but cannot affect both type bits in a single symbol.

06-13-2013

20130151981

REMOTELY DEFINING A USER INTERFACE FOR A HANDHELD DEVICE - In some embodiments, a host computer can be used by a user to arrange icons among a plurality of home screens or views. For example, a representation of each of the home screens available at a handheld device can be displayed on a host computer along with a representation of the available icons usable at the handheld device. A user can select representation of icons at the host computer and arrange the icons among the representations of the home screens. Icons and/or home screens can be added and/or removed. The arrangement created by the user at the host computer display can be sent to the handheld device when completed.

06-13-2013

20130152013

Portable Electronic Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Displaying Electronic Lists and Documents - In a computer-implemented method, a portion of an electronic document is displayed on the touch screen display. The displayed portion of the electronic document has a vertical position in the electronic document. An object is detected on or near the displayed portion of the electronic document. In response to detecting the object on or near the displayed portion of the electronic document, a vertical bar is displayed on top of the displayed portion of the electronic document. The vertical bar has a vertical position on top of the displayed portion of the electronic document that corresponds to the vertical position in the electronic document of the displayed portion of the electronic document. After a predetermined condition is met, display of the vertical bar is ceased. The vertical bar is displayed for a predetermined time period when the portion of the electronic document is initially displayed.

06-13-2013

20130152131

Method and user interface for accessing groups of media assets - Improved systems and methods to navigate, browse, search and/or playback digital media assets (e.g., media items) hosted on a media server are disclosed. One embodiment of the invention pertains to a user interface arrangement, such as a hierarchical menu system, that facilitates navigation, browsing and playing of media items remotely stored on a media server. The user interface arrangement enables user scrolling or browsing with respect to a list or set of information pertaining to media items, where the list or set can be expanded to include information for additional media items that are subsequently acquired. The user interface arrangement can also present and permit navigation of categorized media items. The user interface arrangement can be presented on a display device associated with a client device. In one embodiment, the display device can be a television and the client device can be an electronic apparatus that can couple to the media server via a network.

06-13-2013

20130152378

OVERSIZED ANTENNA FLEX - This is directed to an antenna for use in an electronic device. The antenna can be constructed from a flex and printed trace, such that the flex is originally defined to be as large or nearly as large as possible to fit within portion of the electronic device dedicated to the antenna. This can allow the antenna trace to vary as the antenna is tuned without requiring a new flex having a different shape. In addition, this can allow the antenna design to be decoupled from the mechanical considerations related to mounting the antenna within the electronic device.

06-20-2013

20130152508

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR HANKING A CABLE - Systems and methods for hanking a cable are disclosed. A hanked cable may be formed by winding the cable around two or more mandrels attached to support members of a winding fixture. At least one of the mandrels can be removeably attached to the winding fixture to facilitate clamping the cable between the mandrel and the support member. The distance between mandrels may be varied by including, in the winding fixture, an adjustable stage for adjusting the relative positions of the mandrels. Once the cable is wound into a hanked configuration, it may be wrapped with a semi-rigid wrapping member to help retain the hanked shape.

06-20-2013

20130153429

DUAL ANODIZATION SURFACE TREATMENT - A metal surface treated to have two anodized layers or regions may be used in electronic devices. The surface treatment may include performing a first anodization process to create a first anodized layer, removing the first anodized layer at select locations, and performing a second anodization process to create a second anodized layer at the select locations. The first and second anodized regions may have different decorative properties, such as color, and different structural properties, such as degree of abrasion resistance. One of the anodization processes may be hard anodization and the other may be standard anodization.

06-20-2013

20130154031

INTEGRALLY MOLDED DIE AND BEZEL STRUCTURE FOR FINGERPRINT SENSORS AND THE LIKE - A biometric sensor device, such as a fingerprint sensor, comprises a substrate to which is mounted a die on which is formed a sensor array and at least one conductive bezel. The die and the bezel are encased in a unitary encapsulation structure to protect those elements from mechanical, electrical, and environmental damage, yet with a portion of the sensor array and the bezel exposed or at most thinly covered by the encapsulation or other coating material structure.

06-20-2013

20130154814

Method and Apparatus for Localization of Haptic Feedback - In an embodiment, a haptic feedback system includes a plurality of actuators to provide tactile feedback associated with an input surface. Each actuator is adapted to be activated independently of the other actuators. The system further includes a controller to activate a first actuator of the plurality of actuators to induce a first vibration at a selected input location of the input surface and to activate one or more additional actuators to induce at least a second vibration to localize the first vibration at the selected input location.

06-20-2013

20130154935

Adaptive Acceleration of Mouse Cursor - Disclosed herein are methods and systems for providing a user interface (UI) having a selector controllable by a physical input device. The response of the selector is adaptively adjusted to facilitate executing desired operations within the UI. A response factor defines how far the selector moves for a given movement of the physical input device. The response factor is increased so the selector can be moved a large distance, but is dynamically decreased to provide fine-tuned control of the selector for selecting densely grouped screen elements. Screen elements can be endowed with gravity, making them easy to select, or with anti-gravity, making them more difficult to select. The disclosure methods also provide tactile feedback such as vibration or braking of the physical input device to assist a user in executing desired operations.

06-20-2013

20130154982

PROXIMITY DETECTOR IN HANDHELD DEVICE - Proximity based systems and methods that are implemented on an electronic device are disclosed. The method includes sensing an object spaced away and in close proximity to the electronic device. The method also includes performing an action in the electronic device when an object is sensed.

06-20-2013

20130155022

MULTI-TOUCH INPUT DISCRIMINATION - Techniques for identifying and discriminating between different input patterns to a multi-touch touch-screen device are described. By way of example, large objects hovering a short distance from the touch-surface (e.g., a cheek, thigh or chest) may be identified and distinguished from physical contacts to the surface. In addition, rough contacts due to, for example, ears and earlobes, may be similarly identified and distinguished from contacts due to fingers, thumbs, palms and finger clasps.

06-20-2013

20130155084

Virtualization of Graphics Resources and Thread Blocking - Virtualization of graphics resources and thread blocking is disclosed. In one exemplary embodiment, a system and method of a kernel in an operating system including generating a data structure having an identifier of a graphics resource assigned to a physical memory location in video memory, and blocking access to the physical memory location if a data within the physical memory location is in transition between video memory and system memory wherein a client application accesses memory in the system memory directly and accesses memory in the video memory through a virtual memory map.

06-20-2013

20130155307

SYNCHRONIZED, INTERACTIVE AUGMENTED REALITY DISPLAYS FOR MULTIFUNCTION DEVICES - A device can receive live video of a real-world, physical environment on a touch sensitive surface. One or more objects can be identified in the live video. An information layer can be generated related to the objects. In some implementations, the information layer can include annotations made by a user through the touch sensitive surface. The information layer and live video can be combined in a display of the device. Data can be received from one or more onboard sensors indicating that the device is in motion. The sensor data can be used to synchronize the live video and the information layer as the perspective of video camera view changes due to the motion. The live video and information layer can be shared with other devices over a communication link.

06-20-2013

20130156242

HANDHELD COMPUTING DEVICE - A handheld computing device is disclosed. The handheld computing device includes a seamless housing formed from an extruded metal tube. The extruded tube includes open ends and internal rails which serve as a guide for slidably assembling an operational assembly through the open ends of the extruded tube, a reference surface for positioning the operational assembly relative to an access opening in the seamless housing, and a support structure for supporting the operational assembly during use.

06-20-2013

20130157717

Wireless communications circuitry with a triplexer for separating radio-frequency signals in adjacent frequency bands - A wireless electronic device may be used to communicate using multiple wireless standards in adjacent frequency bands. The wireless standards may include Wi-Fi® and cellular standards such as Long Term Evolution (LTE). The wireless electronic device may be provided with wireless communications circuitry that handles Wi-Fi® and cellular signals in adjacent frequency bands such as the Wi-Fi® 2.4 GHz frequency band and LTE bands 38 and 40. The wireless communications circuitry may include a triplexer interposed between transceiver circuitry and an antenna. The triplexer may be used to handle radio-frequency signals in adjacent frequency bands by separating the radio-frequency signals into signals associated with each frequency band. The triplexer may include filters that each pass signals in a respective one of the frequency bands between the transceiver circuitry and the antenna.

06-20-2013

20130159315

METHODS FOR PREFIX INDEXING - According to one aspect of the invention, in response to one or more terms to be indexed, each of the terms is indexed in a regular index. In addition, for each of the terms having multiple characters, at least one prefix portion of the term is indexed in a prefix index, where the regular index is used for regular searches and the prefix index is used for prefix searches without having to combine a plurality of postings lists of the regular index at the point in time.

06-20-2013

20130159594

Negotiation Between Multiple Processing Units for Switch Mitigation - A method for maintaining data and clock line synchronization, which may include a clock line that may be driven high after a clock line falling edge to mitigate a clock error. Additionally, the clock error may be mitigated by maintaining a saturated state of a device. Furthermore, a register may be connected to a microcontroller and/or a graphical processing unit to negotiate control of a switch and a bus.

06-20-2013

20130159775

Debug Registers for Halting Processor Cores after Reset or Power Off - A method and apparatus of stopping a functional block of an integrated circuit (IC) for debugging purposes is disclosed. In one embodiment, an IC includes a number of functional units accessible by an external debugger via a debug port (DP). During a debug operation, a power controller in the IC may power down a functional unit. When the functional unit is powered off, a first register may be programmed. Responsive to the programming of the first register, a first signal may be asserted and provided to the functional unit. When power is restored to the functional unit, operation of the functional unit may be halted prior to execution of instructions or other operations, responsive to the signal.

06-20-2013

20130159860

HEADS-UP-DISPLAY FOR USE IN A MEDIA MANIPULATION OPERATION - Techniques are provided, for generating a heads-up-display to assist users during performance of media manipulation operations. According to one embodiment, a transient heads-up-display is displayed during a media manipulation operation to assist the user in the media manipulation operation. The heads-up-display may, for example, depict three frames of a video clip when an audio clip is being positioned, on a timeline, relative to the video clip. The three frames that are depicted in the heads-up-display may be the frames located at the current starting position, cursor position, and ending position, of the audio clip. As the audio clip is being moved during the positioning operation, the three frames depicted in the heads-up-display change accordingly.

06-20-2013

20130159861

Adaptive Audio Feedback System and Method - Various techniques for adaptively varying audio feedback data on an electronic device are provided. In one embodiment, an audio user interface implementing certain aspects of the present disclosure may devolve or evolve the verbosity of audio feedback in response to user interface events based at least partially upon the verbosity level of audio feedback provided during previous occurrences of the user interface event. In another embodiment, an audio user interface may be configured to vary the verbosity of audio feedback associated with a navigable list of items based at least partially upon the speed at which a user navigates the list. In a further embodiment, an audio user interface may be configured to vary audio feedback verbosity based upon the contextual importance of a user interface event. Electronic devices implementing the present techniques provide an improved user experience with regard to audio user interfaces.

06-20-2013

20130159868

ACQUISITION AND PRESENTATION OF DYNAMIC MEDIA ASSET INFORMATION FOR EVENTS - Embodiments disclosed allow a user of an electronic device to obtain dynamic media asset information, such as media assets information concerning events. The obtained media asset information can be then presented via the electronic device in a convenient and efficient manner. According to one embodiment, a show time request for a media asset can be transmitted to a media server. In response to the show time request, event information for a plurality of event sites showing the requested media asset can be received. The event sites are selected based upon proximity to the location reference. The event information can include a plurality of show times for the requested media asset at at least a first one of the event sites. The plurality of show times can be presented on a graphical timeline displayed on a display of a computing device. A map image can also be presented to depict a geographic area derived from the event information for each of the plurality of event sites.

06-20-2013

20130159925

Device and Method for Resizing User Interface Content - Heuristics for resizing displayed objects within an electronic document are disclosed. The heuristics include resizing displayed objects to predefined ratios, resizing displayed objects by predefined increments, relating resizing of displayed objects to a global reference grid, and resizing a plurality of displayed objects aligned to an axis.

06-20-2013

20130161171

Keyboard Mechanisms for Electronic Devices - An input device configured to communicate with a computing device includes at least one keycap, a support mechanism operably connected to the keycap and configured to move the keycap from a first position to a second position, and a feature plate operably connected to the support mechanism. The support mechanism includes a first support and a second support. The first support and the second support are each connected to the at least one keycap and the feature plate. The first support and second support pivot to allow vertical movement of the keycap but lateral movement of the first support and second support are restricted.

06-27-2013

20130161172

Keyboard with Position Sensing Mechanism - An input device configured to communicate with a computing device includes at least one keycap, a support mechanism operably connected to the keycap and configured to move the keycap from a first position to a second position, a feature plate operably connected to the support mechanism, and a sensing member. The sensing member is configured to detect at least one of a change of position of the at least one keycap, a speed of the at least one keycap, an amount of force applied to the at least one keycap, or a location of a finger. The sensing member may be a capacitive sensor. In some embodiments, the input device may not include the support mechanism and the sensing member may be configured to detect the location of a finger regardless whether or not the keycap moves.

Illuminated Keyboard - In a first embodiment, an input device includes at least one keycap, a support mechanism configured to move the keycap from a first position to a second position, a feature plate having at least one anchoring mechanism operably connected to the support mechanism, and an illumination panel. The illumination panel is positioned between the at least one keycap and the feature plate. The at least one anchoring member extends through a portion of the illumination panel. In a second embodiment, an input device includes a keycap, a support mechanism configured to move the keycap, a support plate operably connected to the support mechanism, and an illumination panel. The illumination panel includes a light source, a light guide, and a frame substantially surrounding the light guide. Light illuminated from the light source is directed by the light guide and the frame towards the keycap.

06-27-2013

20130162485

WIRELESS HANDHELD ELECTRONIC DEVICE - A handheld electronic device may be provided that contains a conductive housing and other conductive elements. The conductive elements may form an antenna ground plane. One or more antennas for the handheld electronic device may be formed from the ground plane and one or more associated antenna resonating elements. Transceiver circuitry may be connected to the resonating elements by transmission lines such as coaxial cables. Ferrules may be crimped to the coaxial cables. A bracket with extending members may be crimped over the ferrules to ground the coaxial cables to the housing and other conductive elements in the ground plane. The ground plane may contain an antenna slot. A dock connector and flex circuit may overlap the slot in a way that does not affect the resonant frequency of the slot. Electrical components may be isolated from the antenna using isolation elements such as inductors and resistors.

06-27-2013

20130162498

Low-Profile Wide-Bandwidth Radio Frequency Antenna - The present invention relates to an RF antenna structure that includes a planar structure and a loading plate, such that the planar structure is mounted between a ground plane and the loading plate to form an RF antenna. The loading plate may be about parallel to the ground plane and the planar structure may be about perpendicular to the loading plate and the ground plane. The loading plate may allow the height of the RF antenna structure above the ground plane to be relatively small. For example, the height may be significantly less than one-quarter of a wavelength of RF signals of interest. The planar structure may include two conductive matching elements to help increase the bandwidth of the RF antenna structure.

06-27-2013

20130163223

Illumination of Input Device - Input devices having backlighting for associated input mechanisms. The backlighting may be supplied by a light source coupled to a light guide. Both the light guide and light source may be located completely beneath the input mechanism and above a mechanical support for the mechanism. Each input mechanism generally has its own dedicated light guide and light source.

06-27-2013

20130163517

METHODS FOR OPTIMAL COLLABORATIVE MIMO-SDMA - A system and method for collaboratively designing optimized beamforming vectors is disclosed for a wireless multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) space division multiple access (SDMA) communication system to optimize an aggregate SNR performance metric across the different users, thereby permitting the flexibility to trade off computational requirements and size of control information exchanged with performance. Using adaptive vector space search methods, the space of all receive beamformers is searched to find the set which maximizes either the sum or product of SNRs of the users.

06-27-2013

20130164068

BONDED KEYBOARD AND METHOD FOR MAKING THE SAME - A bonded keyboard and method for making the same are disclosed. The bonded keyboard uses adhesive as the primary agent, and in some embodiments, as the sole agent for coupling various components of the keyboard stackup together. The keyboard stackup uses a skeletal adhesive to couple a top case to a backcase assembly. In one embodiment, the skeletal adhesive is an interconnected matrix of ribs dimensioned to fit within the spacing existing between adjacent keys, which are mounted on the backcase assembly. The skeletal adhesive is fixed to the backcase assembly, occupies a portion of the spacing that exists between keys, and the top case is fixed to the top of the skeletal adhesive.

06-27-2013

20130165046

APPARATUSES AND METHODS THAT FACILITATE THE TRANSFER OF POWER AND INFORMATION AMONG RADIO FREQUENCY-BASED DEVICES - The present invention is directed to apparatuses, systems, methods, and computer readable media that can facilitate the transfer of power between at least two electrical devices. At least one of the electrical devices is preferably a battery operated device. The present invention may also be used to facilitate the transfer of information among electrical devices. For example, the present invention may be used to automatically pair two Bluetooth devices together.

Disfavored Route Progressions or Locations - Adaptive route guidance can include analyzing route progressions associated with one or more routes based on multiple user preferences. The adaptive route guidance can provide one or more preferred routes based on the user preferences, which can be presented to a user for navigation purposes.

06-27-2013

20130166278

Systems and Methods for Determining the Language to Use for Speech Generated by a Text to Speech Engine - Algorithms for synthesizing speech used to identify media assets are provided. Speech may be selectively synthesized from text strings associated with media assets, where each text string can be associated with a native string language (e.g., the language of the string). When several text strings are associated with at least two distinct languages, a series of rules can be applied to the strings to identify a single voice language to use for synthesizing the speech content from the text strings. In some embodiments, a prioritization scheme can be applied to the text strings to identify the more important text strings. The rules can include, for example, selecting a voice language based on the prioritization scheme, a default language associated with an electronic device, the ability of a voice language to speak text in a different language, or any other suitable rule.

06-27-2013

20130166442

On-Device Offline Purchases Using Credits - This is directed to providing offline purchasing of media items using an electronic device. One or more media items that are not part of a user's media library can be stored on an electronic device. When a user later wishes to play back one of the media items, but the device cannot connect to a communications network to provide payment information for purchasing the media items, the electronic device can use pre-paid credits that were purchased and stored by the device when a communications network was available to complete the purchase. By using pre-paid credits, the media store can be assured that the user has sufficient funds for the media item purchase.

06-27-2013

20130166633

CONFIGURABLE OFFLINE DATA STORE - A method and apparatus for a configurable offline data store are described. For example, a method includes receiving a request for a first set of one or more records from a client application, wherein the first set is stored in a client data store and the client application also has access to a server data store unit of a server. The method further includes determining whether a first set of records in the client data store unit is valid; and upon determining the first set is valid, deleting those records of the first set in the client data store unit that are outdated. The method further includes upon determining the first set is not valid, deleting the first set; determining whether the record is in the client data store unit; and upon determining the record is in the client data store, transmitting a version of the record to the client application.

06-27-2013

20130166756

METHOD AND ARRANGEMENT FOR SUPPRESSING DUPLICATE NETWORK RESOURCES - A duplicate suppression protocol is introduced in order to suppress duplicate entries from appearing in a list of available network resources. With the duplicate suppression protocol of the present invention, a computer that wishes to query for network resources also asks for duplicate suppression information from the responding network resources. The duplicate suppression information for a particular network resource specifies identifiers associated with that network resource for various protocols. Thus, if a particular network resource responds to more than one network resource request from a single requesting entity, that requesting entity will be able to locate duplicate network resource information. Thus, a single unified list of network resources available for various different protocols may be presented with all duplicate network resources removed.

06-27-2013

20130167032

MULTI-MEDIA CENTER FOR COMPUTING SYSTEMS - Various “media-components” are provided in a “multi-media center.” In modular architecture, a module-controller communicates with media-modules provided for various media-components. A media-module can include or obtain data pertaining to a particular media-component, identify media-player(s), and access information related to their media. However, the media-modules are isolated from each other, and the module-controller effectively controls output generated in response to user input. A user interface library is provided for the media-modules. Media-modules can obtain a template or other tools from the library and construct their user interface (e.g., menus). Media-modules can also identify a media-player that can be initiated in response to user input. Subsequently, the media-controller forwards user input to the media-player.

06-27-2013

20130167094

Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Selection of Views in a Three-Dimensional Map Based on Gesture Inputs - An electronic device displays a first map view of a map that includes one or more map objects on a touch-sensitive display. While displaying the first map view, the device detects a first gesture of a first gesture type at a first location on the touch-sensitive display. The first location corresponds to a respective map object. In response to detecting the first gesture at the first location, the device enters a map view selection mode. While in the map view selection mode, the device detects a second gesture of a second gesture type at a second location on the touch-sensitive display. The second location corresponds to a respective location on the map. In response to detecting the second gesture at the second location, the device replaces the first map view with a second map view that includes a view of the respective map object from the respective location.

06-27-2013

20130167874

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CLEANING ELECTRONIC JACKS OF DEBRIS - Methods and apparatus are provided for cleaning jacks in portable electronic components. In one embodiment of the present invention, an adaptor plug is designed having a hollow shaft and the end of the plug is designed with holes that communication with the hollow shaft. The plug can be inserted into a jack, which can operate to open one or more switches within the jack, thereby freeing any debris that may have accumulated under the switches. Compressed air can then be applied down the hollow shaft and out the holes in the plug to displace the debris and clean the jack. In another embodiment, the end of the plug can be constructed such that it rotates about an axis to increase the likelihood that the jack will be cleaned.

07-04-2013

20130169067

ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH AUTOMATIC MODE SWITCHING - An electronic device for predicting or anticipating a user's operational desires. The electronic device is ready to perform the anticipated function without input from the user by using sensors to sense environmental attributes. The sensors can include an ambient light sensor, a force sensor, a temperature sensor, an ambient noise sensor, and a motion sensor. The electronic device also includes a control mechanism for switching between modes for the device.

07-04-2013

20130170656

ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND HEADSET WITH SPEAKER SEAL EVALUATION CAPABILITIES - Electronic devices and accessories for electronic devices such as headsets are provided. The electronic devices may produce audio output. The headsets may include earbuds with speakers that play the audio output for a user while the earbuds are located in the user's ears. Circuitry in an electronic device and a headset may be used in evaluating how well the earbuds are sealed to the user's ears. In response to seal quality measurements, informative messages can be generated for the user, overall earbud volume may be increased, balance adjustments may be made to correct for mismatched balance between left and right earbuds, equalization settings may be adjusted, and noise cancellation circuitry settings can be changed. Electrical impedance measurements and acoustic measurements can be used in evaluating seal quality.

07-04-2013

20130170743

Detecting Illumination in Images - An image having m light sources, with m preferably equaling 2 or 3, is segmented into different regions, each of which is lit by only one of the m light sources, by obtaining paired imaged with different filtering, for example a filtered and an unfiltered image, applying to the image pairs sets of m pre-computed mappings at the pixel or region level, and selecting the most appropriate. The rendering of the information in the image maybe adjusted accordingly.

07-04-2013

20130172022

Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Configuring and Implementing Restricted Interactions with a User Interface - An electronic device, while in a restricted interaction mode in an application other than a call application, displays a first user interface that includes a plurality of user interface objects, and receives an incoming call. The electronic device determines whether the incoming phone call satisfies predefined signaling criteria. In accordance with a determination that the incoming call satisfies the predefined signaling criteria, the electronic device outputs a signal that indicates the incoming call. In accordance with a determination that the incoming phone call does not satisfy the predefined criteria, the electronic device foregoes outputting the signal indicating the incoming call.

07-04-2013

20130172045

ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH PROXIMITY-BASED RADIO POWER CONTROL - An electronic device such as a portable electronic device may have an antenna and associated wireless communications circuitry. A sensor such as a proximity sensor may be used to detect when the electronic device is in close proximity to a user's head. Control circuitry within the electronic device may be used to adjust radio-frequency signal transmit power levels. When it is determined that the electronic device is within a given distance from the user's head, the radio-frequency signal transmit power level may be reduced. When it is determined that the electronic device is not within the given distance from the user's head, proximity-based limits on the radio-frequency signal transmit power level may be removed. Data may be gathered from a touch sensor, accelerometer, ambient light sensor and other sources for use in determining how to adjust the transmit power level.

07-04-2013

20130173035

INTERFACE OF A MEDIA PLAYER WITH A MEDIA DEVICE - A handheld media player includes a processor, a display coupled with the processor, a memory for storing media, and a first user interface. A media device includes a second user interface, a housing having a surface, and a media connector for connecting the media device to the handheld media player. The first user interface is configured to be exposed to a user after the handheld media player is connected to the media device. The first user interface of the handheld media player acts as the primary user interface of the media device when the handheld media player is connected to the media device.

07-04-2013

20130173315

PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH PROXIMITY-BASED CONTENT SYNCHRONIZATION - Systems are provided that support millimeter-wave wireless communications between hosts and electronic devices. A host may be formed using a personal computer associated with a user or computing equipment associated with a public establishment. Content can be automatically synchronized between the host and the user's electronic device over a millimeter-wave wireless communications link in a communications band such as a 60 GHz wireless communications band. Synchronization operations may be performed based on user content preferences. Content preference information may be gathered explicitly from a user using on-screen options or may be gathered by monitoring user media playback activities and media rating activities. The content preference information may be transmitted automatically from an electronic device to a host when the electronic device is brought within range of the host. Synchronization operations may be performed automatically when a user is in proximity of a point-of-sale terminal or ticketing equipment.

07-04-2013

20130173746

INTERFACING PORTABLE MEDIA DEVICES AND SPORTS EQUIPMENT - Circuits, methods, and apparatus allow sports or other equipment, such as gym or other cardio equipment, to write data to a media player. Examples further provide the uploading of this data to a computer and third-party website. To monitor progress, the third-party website can be used to track workout data over time. The third party-website can also collect data from other users, which is particularly useful for providing a competitive environment. This data can then be graphically displayed in various ways to provide encouragement.

07-04-2013

20130174043

Remotely Configured Media Device - Improved techniques for controlling operation of a portable electronic device are disclosed. Portable electronic devices which interact with a host electronic device can have their operational settings (e.g., configurations or preferences) remotely controlled. As a result, a host electronic device can offer a more sophisticated user interface and portable electronic devices need less local user interface features because these operational settings can be remotely controlled. The remotely-controlled (i.e., host controlled) operational settings are transferred to the portable electronic devices, whereby the portable electronic devices can thereafter operate in accordance with such settings.

07-04-2013

20130176091

UNIBODY MAGNET - A method for plating magnets with metal is disclosed. In one embodiment, the metal is aluminum and the aluminum plating provides a number of aesthetic and structural advantages, over brittle magnetic materials, which are only plated with a thin, anti-corrosive metallic layer. More specifically, methods for creating multi-pole bar magnets and structural elements primarily with aluminum coated magnetic material are disclosed.

07-11-2013

20130176242

Hybrid Inertial and Touch Sensing Input Device - A method and apparatus for tracking coarse and fine motions associated with an electronic input device is disclosed. The electronic input device can have both an inertial sensor and a touch sensor. The method includes receiving inputs from an inertial sensor and a touch sensor, and dynamically adjusting a velocity estimate of the electronic input device based on weighting or predetermined thresholds of the inputs to maximize a tracking range of the input device.

07-11-2013

20130176281

INTEGRATED TOUCH SCREEN - Displays with integrated touch sensing circuitry are provided. An integrated touch screen can include multi-function circuit elements that form part of the display circuitry of the display system that generates an image on the display, and also form part of the touch sensing circuitry of a touch sensing system that senses one or more touches on or near the display. The multi-function circuit elements can be, for example, capacitors in display pixels of an LCD that are configured to operate as display circuitry in the display system, and that may also be configured to operate as touch circuitry of the touch sensing system. For example, one or more circuit elements of the display pixel stackup can form a conductive portion of the touch sensing system, such as a charge collector, which can be operated with switches and conductive lines to sense touch.

07-11-2013

20130176293

LUMINESCENCE SHOCK AVOIDANCE IN DISPLAY DEVICES - A luminescence shock avoidance algorithm selectively limits the brightness level of a display device when the display device is activated in a dark environment to prevent the temporary vision impairment that can occur when a display device is activated in a dark environment. The algorithm receives the state of the display (e.g. on or in standby mode), and can optionally receive an ambient lighting value from an ambient light sensor and a user-selectable manual brightness adjustment setting to determine whether luminescence shock avoidance should even be triggered, and if it is triggered, how much should the brightness level of the display be limited.

07-11-2013

20130176486

Pillarboxing Correction - A display control device used to govern non-content regions in a display space, and selectively determine data for display in the non-content regions is described. The display control device can identify the non-content regions, and determine types of data that can be filled in the non-content regions. Once determined, the fill data can be presented in the non-content regions concurrently with an image frame.

07-11-2013

20130176695

BUTTON ASSEMBLY WITH INVERTED DOME SWITCH - A portable electronic device may have an inverted dome switch assembly. The switch assembly may have an inverted dome that has a base and a conductive underside. The base may be attached to a button member. Two electrical contacts in the button member may face the conductive underside. Corresponding conductive traces may be connected to the contacts. The dome may bear against a housing member. The button member may be movable with respect to the housing member from an unactuated position to an actuated position. The dome switch may form a footprint based upon the dome base area. The housing member may extend into a portion of the footprint and not into the remaining portion of the footprint allowing that space to be otherwise utilized.

07-11-2013

20130176798

MECHANISM FOR PEAK POWER MANAGEMENT IN A MEMORY - A mechanism for managing peak power in a memory storage array that includes sub-array blocks may reduce the peak currents associated with read and write operations by staggering the wordline signal activation to each of the sub-array blocks. In particular, the wordline units within each sub-array block may generate the wordline signals to each sub-array block such that a read wordline signal of one sub-array block does not transition from one logic level to another logic level at the same time as the write wordline of another sub-array block. Further, the wordline units may generate the wordline signals to each sub-array block such that a read wordline of a given sub-array block does not transition from one logic level to another logic level at the same time as a read wordline signal of another sub-array block.

07-11-2013

20130178223

DOWNLINK AND UPLINK ARRAY AND BEAMFORMING ARRANGEMENT FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS - System and methods of cellular communications network are described herein. In one system, an antenna array is described. The antenna array has a first beamforming arrangement for producing uplink beams and a second beamforming arrangement for producing downlink beams. The first and second beamforming arrangements are different from one another. The wireless communication network communicates with a mobile station by use of the uplink and downlink beamforming arrangements.

07-11-2013

20130178230

ALTITUDE ESTIMATION USING A PROBABILITY DENSITY FUNCTION - Methods, program products, and systems of location estimation using a probability density function are disclosed. In general, in one aspect, a server can estimate an effective altitude of a wireless access gateway using harvested data. The server can harvest location data from multiple mobile devices. The harvested data can include a location of each mobile device and an identifier of a wireless access gateway that is located within a communication range of the mobile device. The server can calculate an effective altitude of the wireless access gateway using a probability density function of the harvested data. The probability density function can be a sufficient statistic of the received set of location coordinates for calculating an effective altitude of the wireless access gateway. The server can send the effective altitude of the wireless access gateway to other mobile devices for estimating altitudes of the other mobile devices.

07-11-2013

20130178246

ENABLING SPEAKER PHONE MODE OF A PORTABLE VOICE COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE HAVING A BUILT-IN CAMERA - Apparatuses and methods of using a speaker phone mode of a portable voice communications device having a built-in camera are described herein. In one embodiment, the speaker phone mode is activated if it is determined that an image captured by tire device is black or nearly black, which indicates that the device is placed flat or nearly flat against surface. In one embodiment, the speaker phone mode is activated based on the results of comparing the captured image to a plurality of previously stored captured images wherein the previously stored captured images include images captured by the device in situations where it would be desirable for the speaker phone mode to be activated. In one embodiment, the speaker phone mode is activated based on a comparison of a captured image and previously stored captured images and their respective speaker phone mode statuses. Other embodiments are also described.

07-11-2013

20130179000

AUTOMATIC ADJUSTMENT OF THERMAL REQUIREMENT - Methods and apparatuses to automatically adjust a thermal requirement of a data processing system are described. One or more conditions associated with a data processing system are detected. A temperature requirement for the data processing system is determined based on the one or more conditions. The performance of the data processing system may be throttled to maintain a temperature of the data processing system below the temperature requirement. Detecting the one or more conditions associated with the data processing system may include determining a location of the data processing system based on a measured motion, a state of a peripheral device, a position of one portion of the data processing system (e.g., a lid) relative another portion of the data processing system (e.g., a bottom portion), a type of application operating on the data processing system, or any combination thereof.

07-11-2013

20130179459

MIXED SOURCE MEDIA PLAYBACK - Playlists having media items from more than one source are described. Media items in a first library are mapped to media items from an online media item store. Media items within the playlist that can be found in the first library will be played from the first library, while media items not within the first library will be played from the online media store. By identifying media items present in both libraries and playing them only from the first library, the described method can reduce the royalties needing to be paid by the online media store. Further methods are disclosed for setting limits on the number of media items that can be shared by a second library.

07-11-2013

20130179471

MULTI-TIERED CACHES IN DATA RENDERING - Methods, program products, and systems for rendering data using multi-tiered caches are described. A system can render a first section of data and store the rendered first section of data in a first tier cache. The system can determine that a data field, when rendered, straddles the rendering of the first section of data and a rendering of a second section of data. The system can generate a rendering of the data field and store the rendering of the data field in a second tier cache. When rendering the second section of data, the system can use the rendered data field stored in the second tier cache instead of regenerating the rendering of the data field.

07-11-2013

20130179638

Streaming Translation in Display Pipe - In an embodiment, a display pipe includes one or more translation units corresponding to images that the display pipe is reading for display. Each translation unit may be configured to prefetch translations ahead of the image data fetches, which may prevent translation misses in the display pipe (at least in most cases). The translation units may maintain translations in first-in, first-out (FIFO) fashion, and the display pipe fetch hardware may inform the translation unit when a given translation or translation is no longer needed. The translation unit may invalidate the identified translations and prefetch additional translation for virtual pages that are contiguous with the most recently prefetched virtual page.

07-11-2013

20130179989

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENFORCING SOFTWARE LICENSES - A method and apparatus for enforcing software licenses for resource libraries such as an application program interface (API), a toolkit, a framework, a runtime library, a dynamic link library (DLL), an applet (e.g., a Java or ActiveX applet), or any other reusable resource. The resource library can be used by authorized end user software programs. A “per-program” licensing scheme for a resource library can allow a resource library to be licensed only for use with particular software programs.

07-11-2013

20130181104

FLAT PANEL DISPLAY INCLUDING A HINGE ASSEMBLY - An apparatus for a flat panel is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a flat panel assembly and a hinge mechanism coupled to the flat panel assembly. The hinge mechanism is adaptable to an industry standard mount and a non-industry standard mount. A system and method in accordance with the present invention allows for the replacement of a non-VESA standard compatible display mount with a display mount that is compatible with the VESA standard. Utilizing the system and method in accordance with the present invention, such a replacement can be accomplished with minimal effort, and in an efficient manner.

07-18-2013

20130181811

Magnetometer Accuracy and Use - A parameter related to the Earth's magnetic field can be used to determine accuracy of a magnetometer of a mobile device. In one aspect, a first instance of a parameter related to Earth's magnetic field is determined using data generated by the magnetometer. The magnetometer data can be based in part on a position of the mobile device with respect to the Earth. A second instance of the parameter can be determined using data generated by a model of Earth's magnetic field. The model data can also be based in part on the position of the mobile device with respect to the Earth. The first instance of the parameter can be compared with the second instance of the parameter. An accuracy metric for the magnetometer can be determined based on a result of the comparison. An indication of the accuracy metric can be presented by the mobile device.

07-18-2013

20130181949

FINGER SENSOR HAVING PIXEL SENSING CIRCUITRY FOR COUPLING ELECTRODES AND PIXEL SENSING TRACES AND RELATED METHODS - A finger sensor may include pixels, pixel sensing traces each associated with a respective pixel, and electrodes overlying the pixel sensing traces. The finger sensor may also include pixel sensing circuitry coupled to the pixel sensing traces and the electrodes. The pixel sensing circuitry may be capable of operating in a measurement mode by operating the pixels so that at least some of the pixels are active, and at least some other of the pixels are inactive and coupling pixel sensing traces associated with the inactive pixels to a voltage reference. The pixel sensing circuitry may also be capable of operating in the measurement mode by coupling electrodes associated with the active pixels to the voltage reference and coupling electrodes associated with the inactive pixels to a drive signal.

07-18-2013

20130182493

Integrated Circuit With Separate Supply Voltage For Memory That Is Different From Logic Circuit Supply Voltage - In one embodiment, an integrated circuit includes at least one logic circuit supplied by a first supply voltage and at least one memory circuit coupled to the logic circuit and supplied by a second supply voltage. The memory circuit is configured to be read and written responsive to the logic circuit even if the first supply voltage is less than the second supply voltage during use. In another embodiment, a method includes a logic circuit reading a memory cell, the logic circuit supplied by a first supply voltage; and the memory cell responding to the read using signals that are referenced to the first supply voltage, wherein the memory cell is supplied with a second supply voltage that is greater than the first supply voltage during use.

07-18-2013

20130182587

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ADAPTIVE RECEIVER MODE SELECTION DURING DISCONTINUOUS RECEPTION - Methods and apparatus for adaptively adjusting receiver operation during non-continuous (e.g., discontinuous) reception. In one exemplary embodiment, a user device such as a User Equipment (UE) adaptively adjusts its reception mode based on a determined actual error. The reception mode is selected so as to improve reception performance, while still minimizing overall power consumption.

07-18-2013

20130182589

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ENHANCED COEXISTENCE ALGORITHMS IN WIRELESS SYSTEMS - Methods and apparatus for mitigating the effects of interference between multiple air interfaces located on an electronic device. In one embodiment, the air interfaces include a WLAN interface and PAN (e.g., Bluetooth) interface, and information such as Receiver Signal Strength Index (RSSI) as well as system noise level information are used in order to intelligently execute interference mitigation methodologies, including the selective application of modified frequency selection, variation of transmitter power, and/or change of operating mode (e.g., from multiple-in multiple-out (MIMO) to single-in, single-out (SISO)) so as to reduce isolation requirements between the interfaces. These methods and apparatus are particularly well suited to use cases where the WLAN interface is operating with high data transmission rates. Business methods associated with the foregoing technology are also described.

07-18-2013

20130182659

TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING CONTROL CHANNEL ACQUISITION IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM - A technique of operating a wireless communication system includes determining respective geometries of multiple subscriber stations, which include a first subscriber station and a second subscriber station, with respect to a serving base station. Respective control channels, which include a first control channel associated with the first subscriber station and a second control channel associated with the second subscriber station, for the multiple subscriber stations are then scheduled based on the respective geometries. The first control channel is scheduled to be encountered earlier in a control channel search procedure, of the one or more control channel symbols, than the second control channel. The first subscriber station has a lower geometry than the second subscriber station.

07-18-2013

20130182665

Method and Apparatus for Candidate List Generation for Uplink V-MINO - A method selects mobile station candidates for use with virtual multiple-input multiple-output (“V-MIMO”) in a communication system. The communication system includes at least one base station and a plurality of mobile stations. At least one downlink metric is determined for a first mobile station. The at least one downlink metric is used to determine eligibility for uplink V-MIMO candidate list selection. Responsive to determining that the first mobile station is eligible for uplink V-MIMO candidate list selection, the first mobile station is paired with a second mobile station eligible for uplink V-MIMO candidate list selection.

07-18-2013

20130182681

METHODS TO CONTROL MULTIPLE RADIO ACCESS BEARERS IN A WIRELESS DEVICE - A method to control multiple radio access bearers is performed at a mobile wireless communication device when the mobile wireless communication device is connected to a radio network subsystem in a wireless communication network by first and second bidirectional radio access bearers. The mobile wireless communication device transmits a data packet on an uplink of the first bidirectional radio access bearer to the radio network subsystem. When the data packet is not correctly received by the radio network subsystem, the mobile wireless communication device retransmits the data packet repeatedly. After N retransmissions of the data packet, the mobile wireless communication device releases the first bidirectional radio access bearer while maintaining the second bidirectional radio access bearer. The first bidirectional radio access bearer provides a channel to transport packet switched data, and the second bidirectional radio access bearer provides a channel to transport circuit switched data.

07-18-2013

20130182778

HYPOTHETICAL REFERENCE DECODER - Disclosed is a system and method of controlling a video decoder, including a reviewing channel data representing coded video data generated by an encoder to identify parameters of a hypothetical reference decoder (HRD) used by the encoder during coding operations. A parameter representing an exit data rate requirement of a coded picture buffer (CPB) of the HRD is compared against exit rate performance of the video decoder. If the exit rate performance of the video coder matches the exit rate requirement of the HRD, the coded video data is decoded, otherwise, a certain decoding degradation scheme can be applied, including disabling decoder from decoding the coded video data.

07-18-2013

20130183942

Voicemail Systems and Methods - Systems, methods and computer readable media for providing or managing or using voicemails are described. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, at a first data processing system, data representing an expiration time of a voicemail left for a user of the first data processing system and storing the data representing the expiration time for later use by the first data processing system. Systems, media, and other methods are also described.

07-18-2013

20130184027

Group Call Management - A method of setting up a call group for participation in a group call by a number of mobile devices in a mobile telecommunications network. The mobile telecommunications network includes a serving node in communication with the mobile devices. The method includes the serving node receiving data indicative of a group identifier from a given mobile device registered with the mobile telecommunications network. The method also includes defining a group call area using the received group identifier, and the serving node discriminating one call group registered with the telecommunications network from another call group registered with the telecommunications network based upon the defined group call area.

07-18-2013

20130184842

INCREASED SPEED OF PROCESSING OF DATA RECEIVED OVER A COMMUNICATIONS LINK - A method and apparatus for processing data samples utilizes a channel map populated by device descriptor, or by an application program interface. Packet processing code loops through all of the samples contained in a packet while incrementing through a channel map and steering table without having to look up a table to determine in what audio buffer the sample is to be stored or read. Additionally, the present invention utilizes a stride map, so the audio subsystem knows how many samples to skip in order to reach the next sample frame. The present invention can be used for handling received packets as well as forming packets to send over a bus.

07-18-2013

20130185074

Paraphrasing of User Requests and Results by Automated Digital Assistant - Methods, systems, and computer readable storage medium related to operating an intelligent digital assistant are disclosed. A user request is received, the user request including at least a speech input received from a user. In response to the user request, (1) an echo of the speech input based on a textual interpretation of the speech input, and (2) a paraphrase of the user request based at least in part on a respective semantic interpretation of the speech input are presented to the user.

07-18-2013

20130185081

Maintaining Context Information Between User Interactions with a Voice Assistant - Methods, systems, and computer readable storage medium related to operating an intelligent digital assistant are disclosed. A first task is performed using a first parameter. A text string is obtained from a speech input received from a user. Based at least partially on the text string, a second task different from the first task or a second parameter different from the first parameter is identified. The first task is performed using the second parameter or the second task is performed using the first parameter.

07-18-2013

20130185346

PROOFING ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS ON PORTABLE DEVICES - A user can proof (e.g., view, review) an electronic publication on a portable device. When the user finds errors in the electronic publication on the portable device, the user can edit the electronic publication on the editing device. The changes can be automatically synchronized with the portable device and displayed so that the user can review the changes and continue proofing the electronic publication on the portable device. In some implementations, an editing device can monitor files associated with an electronic publication for changes to the files and, when changes are detected, the files can be automatically synchronized to a portable device coupled to the editing device.

07-18-2013

20130185373

GROUP FORMATION WITHIN A SYNCHRONIZED HIERARCHY OF PEER-TO-PEER DEVICES - A system, apparatus and method for organizing devices in a peer-to-peer communication environment. A number of devices synchronize among themselves and select masters (or synchronization stations) to organize the devices into a hierarchy. Master devices have associated preference values reflecting their preference or suitability to be a master device, and broadcast synchronization frames to keep devices synchronized. When multiple devices in one or more hierarchies execute a common application or service, they form a private group to exchange or share data (e.g., play a game, transfer a file). All devices in the hierarchy maintain and advertise a public or default identifier of the hierarchy, and all devices in the private group maintain and advertise a private identifier specific to the group. Members of the group synchronize under a top group master (or root sync station), which synchronizes with a master that is part of the hierarchy.

07-18-2013

20130185388

APPROACH FOR DOWNLOADING DATA OVER NETWORKS USING AUTOMATIC BANDWIDTH DETECTION - An approach is provided for downloading data over a network that uses automatic bandwidth detection. According to the approach, a first version of data to be requested is selected from a plurality of available versions of the data. The first version may be selected based upon a default selection or based upon prior determined connection speeds. A client requests the first version of the data from a server and the client begins receiving the first version of the data. A determination of at least an approximate connection speed is made based upon at least a portion of the first version of the data received at the client. A determination is then made, based upon the determined connection speed, whether a different version of the data should be requested. If so, then the client requests a different version of the data from the server.

07-18-2013

20130185481

SWITCHING DRIVERS BETWEEN PROCESSORS - Systems, methods, and computer software for operating a device can be used to operate the device in multiple modes. The device can be operated in a first operating mode adapted for processing data, in which a first processor executes a driver for a nonvolatile memory and a second processor performs processing of data stored in files on the nonvolatile memory. An instruction can be received to switch the device to a second operating mode adapted for reading and/or writing files from or to the nonvolatile memory. The driver for the nonvolatile memory can be switched from the first processor to the second processor in response to the instruction, and the driver for the nonvolatile memory can be executed on the second processor after performing the switch. A communications driver can be executed on the first processor in response to the instruction to switch the device to the second operating mode.

07-18-2013

20130185631

Identification of Compound Graphic Elements in an Unstructured Document - Some embodiments provide a method of analyzing an unstructured document. The method receiving the unstructured document that includes a number of primitive graphic elements, each of which is defined as a single object in the unstructured document. The unstructured document has a drawing order that indicates the order in which the primitive graphic elements are drawn when the unstructured document is displayed. The method identifies positional relationships between successive primitive graphic elements in the drawing order. Based on the positional relationships, the method defines a single structural graphic element from several of the primitive graphic elements.

07-18-2013

20130185677

Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image - A device with a touch-sensitive display may be unlocked via gestures performed on the touch-sensitive display. The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device. The device displays one or more unlock images with respect to which the predefined gesture is to be performed in order to unlock the device. The performance of the predefined gesture with respect to the unlock image may include moving the unlock image to a predefined location and/or moving the unlock image along a predefined path. The device may also display visual cues of the predefined gesture on the touch screen to remind a user of the gesture.

07-18-2013

20130185678

Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image - A device with a touch-sensitive display may be unlocked via gestures performed on the touch-sensitive display. The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device. The device displays one or more unlock images with respect to which the predefined gesture is to be performed in order to unlock the device. The performance of the predefined gesture with respect to the unlock image may include moving the unlock image to a predefined location and/or moving the unlock image along a predefined path. The device may also display visual cues of the predefined gesture on the touch screen to remind a user of the gesture.

07-18-2013

20130185680

Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image - A device with a touch-sensitive display may be unlocked via gestures performed on the touch-sensitive display. The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device. The device displays one or more unlock images with respect to which the predefined gesture is to be performed in order to unlock the device. The performance of the predefined gesture with respect to the unlock image may include moving the unlock image to a predefined location and/or moving the unlock image along a predefined path. The device may also display visual cues of the predefined gesture on the touch screen to remind a user of the gesture.

07-18-2013

20130185764

FILE SYSTEM ACCESS FOR ONE OR MORE SANDBOXED APPLICATIONS - Methods, systems, and machine-readable storage medium are described wherein, in one embodiment, identifiers, such as bookmarks, are used to allow access to files or folders in a sandboxed environment. One or more applications are restricted by an access control system, which can be, for example, a trusted software component of an operating system. In one embodiment, the bookmarks or other identifiers allow an application to have access to a file even if the file is renamed or moved by a user while the application has been terminated. In one embodiment, a resource manager, or other trusted access control system, can interact with an application to allow for the use of bookmarks in an environment in which a sandbox application controls access to the files such that each application must make a request to the sandbox application in order to obtain access to a particular file or folder.

07-18-2013

20130186941

INDUCTION BONDING - The described embodiment relates generally to the field of inductive bonding. More specifically an inductive heater designed for use in assembling electronics is disclosed. A number of methods for shaping a magnetic field are disclosed for the purpose of completing an inductive bonding process without causing harm to unshielded adjacent electrical components.

07-25-2013

20130188305

Portable Computer Display Structures - An electronic device housing may have upper and lower portions that are attached with a hinge. At least one portion of the housing may have a rear planar surface and peripheral sidewalls having edges. A display module may be mounted in the housing. The display module may have glass layers such as a color filter glass layer and a thin-film transistor substrate. The color filter glass layer may serve as the outermost glass layer in the display module. The edges of the display module may be aligned with the edges of the peripheral housing sidewalls to create the appearance of a borderless display for the electronic device. The display module may be provided with an opening that allows a camera or other electronic components to receive light. Traces may be provided on the underside of the thin-film transistor substrate to serve as signal paths for the electrical components.

Text to Speech Conversion of Text Messages from Mobile Communication Devices - A method includes providing a user interface, at a mobile communication device, that includes a first area to receive text input and a second area to receive an identifier associated with an addressee device. The text input and the identifier are received via the user interface. A short message service (SMS) message including the text input is transmitted to a Text to Speech (TTS) server for conversion into an audio message and for transmission of the audio message to the addressee device associated with the identifier. An acknowledge message transmitted from the TTS server permits the addressee device to allow delivery of the audio message or to decline delivery of the audio message. The TTS server transmits the audio message in response to the addressee device allowing delivery of the audio message. A confirmation message is received from the TTS server that indicates that a reply voice message has been received from the addressee device in response to the audio message.

07-25-2013

20130190056

Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image - A device with a touch-sensitive display may be unlocked via gestures performed on the touch-sensitive display. The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device. The device displays one or more unlock images with respect to which the predefined gesture is to be performed in order to unlock the device. The performance of the predefined gesture with respect to the unlock image may include moving the unlock image to a predefined location and/or moving the unlock image along a predefined path. The device may also display visual cues of the predefined gesture on the touch screen to remind a user of the gesture.

07-25-2013

20130191318

RECOMMENDER SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFYING A NEW SET OF MEDIA ITEMS RESPONSIVE TO AN INPUT SET OF MEDIA ITEMS AND KNOWLEDGE BASE METRICS - Systems and methods are disclosed for identifying a new set of media items in response to an input set (or “query set”) of media items and knowledge base metrics. The system uses a knowledge base consisting of a collection of mediasets. Various metrics among media items are considered by analyzing how the media items are grouped to form the mediasets in the knowledge base. Such association or “similarity” metrics are preferably stored in a matrix form that allows the system to efficiently identify a new set of media items that complements the input set of media items.

07-25-2013

20130191408

SEARCH ASSISTANT FOR DIGITAL MEDIA ASSETS - Techniques and systems for facilitating searching of digital media assets are disclosed. In one embodiment, a user can be assisted in entering search strings for searching a media repository (e.g., online media store) having a plurality of digital media assets that are available, e.g., available for purchase. When the user enters a search character, a list of possible complete search strings corresponding to digital media assets available in the media repository can be obtained over a network and presented to the user. The list of possible search strings can be filtered based on whether a client device supports a media type associated with a word or based on a location of the client device.

07-25-2013

20130191634

Resource Restriction Systems and Methods - Resource restrictions are associated with a user identifier. A resource restriction agent receives operating system calls related for resources and provides resource request data to a resource agent. The resource agent determines whether the resource is restricted based on the resource request data and resource restriction data and generates access data based on the determination. The resource restriction agent grants or denies the system call based on the access data.

07-25-2013

20130191910

Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Accessing an Application in a Locked Device - A device with a touch sensitive display and a plurality of applications, including a camera application, while the device is in a locked, passcode-protected state: displays a lock screen interface, the lock screen interface including a camera access indicia; detects a gesture; in response to a determination that the gesture starts on the camera access indicia: ceases to display the lock screen interface; starts a restricted session for the camera application; displays an interface for the camera application, without displaying a passcode entry interface; and maintains the device in the locked, passcode-protected state for the applications other than the camera application; and in response to a determination that the gesture starts at a location other than the camera access indicia: displays a passcode entry interface, wherein in response to entry of a correct passcode in the passcode entry interface, the device enters an unlocked state.

07-25-2013

20130191911

Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Accessing an Application in a Locked Device - A device with a touch sensitive display and a plurality of applications, including a camera application, while the device is in a locked, passcode-protected state: displays a lock screen interface, the lock screen interface including a camera access indicia; detects a gesture; in response to a determination that the gesture starts on the camera access indicia: ceases to display the lock screen interface; starts a restricted session for the camera application; displays an interface for the camera application, without displaying a passcode entry interface; and maintains the device in the locked, passcode-protected state for the applications other than the camera application; and in response to a determination that the gesture starts at a location other than the camera access indicia: displays a passcode entry interface, wherein in response to entry of a correct passcode in the passcode entry interface, the device enters an unlocked state.

07-25-2013

20130193193

ULTRASONIC BONDING - The described embodiment relates generally to the field of ultrasonic bonding. More specifically, an apparatus for bonding a number of wires directly to a metal substrate in a single operation without the use of any kind of adhesive or solder is disclosed. The apparatus is an ultrasonic bonder. The ultrasonic bonder has a horn with a cavity specifically sized for the number of wires to be bonded. The ultrasonic bonder is driven at a frequency that corresponds to a resonant frequency of the wires to be bonded.

08-01-2013

20130194062

Active Electronic Media Device Packaging - Active packaging for supplying power, data, or both power and data to an electronic media device while the device is housed within the active packaging is provided. The active packaging may include one or more electrical traces in-molded or printed onto the packaging that couple to a suitable connector on the device. Power may also be provided via one or more wireless power techniques. Multiple active packages may be conductively stacked to transmit power, data, or both power and data to a row or stack or devices. POM sensors integrated with or attached to the device (or the active packaging itself) may detect various movement events. Coordinated and synchronized display effects may be presented while the devices are housed within the active packaging.

08-01-2013

20130194281

Moisture Barrier for Electronic Devices - An electronic display configured to provide a visual output, such as a liquid crystal display. The electronic display includes an optical shutter and a first polarizer operably connected to the optical shutter. The first polarizer includes an optical filter layer, a protective layer, and a moisture barrier positioned on a first surface of either the optical filter or the protective layer. The moisture barrier substantially prevents water molecules from being transmitted therethrough.

08-01-2013

20130195052

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR EFFICIENT SPECTRAL USAGE IN EXTENSIBLE CARRIER DEPLOYMENTS - Methods and apparatus for providing efficient spectral usage in extensible carrier deployments. In one embodiment, the deployment comprises a long-term evolution (LTE) or LTE-advanced (LTE-A) network, and a reference carrier resource and one or more extensible carrier resources are configured based at least in part on a time and/or frequency separation. In one exemplary implementation, one or more reference carriers are combined with one or more carrier extensions/segments. The resulting aggregated bandwidth can be used to, among other things, optimize overall network operation.

08-01-2013

20130195056

Service Flow With Robust Header Compression (ROHC) In A WiMAX Wirless Network - A robust header compression (ROHC) controller provides for service flow processing of a ROHC channel in a WiMAX wireless communication system. The ROHC controller controls the negotiations of the MS ROHC capabilities during its registration and the negotiations of the ROHC channel parameters during ROHC enabled service flow setup; the MS ROHC capabilities including ROHC compression and decompression capabilities and ROHC channel and feedback strategies; the channel parameter negotiation covers the ROHC profile set and feedback channel information in addition to the 16e/12D standard. The ROHC controller receives a service flow request for a ROHC enabled service flow, wherein the request includes a QoS profile.

08-01-2013

20130195160

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ERROR RATE ESTIMATION - Methods and apparatus for estimating received error rates. In one embodiment, the estimation of received error rates is conducted in relation to a bus interface such as a high-speed High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) interface, and the method utilizes corrupted symbols that violate TMDS symbol rules, the corrupted symbols being easily detected and counted. In one exemplary implementation, a symbol error rate (SER) can be estimated from the number of detected invalid symbols. The SER can be used to diagnose the performance of the HDMI interface, and optionally as a basis for selecting or implementing corrective action(s).

08-01-2013

20130195183

VIDEO CODING EFFICIENCY WITH CAMERA METADATA - A system and method for using camera capture settings and related metadata to estimate the parameters for encoding a frame of the captured video data and to modify reference frames to accommodate detected camera setting changes. According to an embodiment, global brightness and color changes in video capture may be modeled by performing a sequence of transform operations on the reference frames to further improve the coding efficiency of a video coding system.

08-01-2013

20130195218

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR THE INTELLIGENT SCRAMBLING OF CONTROL SYMBOLS - Methods and apparatus for the scrambling of control symbols. In one embodiment, the control symbols are associated with an HDMI interface, and the methods and apparatus are configured to scramble the symbols to as to mitigate the effects of electromagnetic interference (EMI) created by the transmission of otherwise unscrambled sequences of symbols which may contain significant “clock pattern” or other undesirable artifact.

08-01-2013

20130195356

Blemish Removal - A method of removing blemishes from an image. The method receives a selection of an area of an image, divides the area into at least two interior sub-areas, and replaces the colors of each sub-area independently from each other sub-area.

08-01-2013

20130196183

Battery charging system and mobile and accessory devices - Various embodiments of the present invention are directed at a method and system for recharging batteries for wireless electronic devices. According to one embodiment, a battery charging and monitoring system is disclosed. The system includes a host machine providing a plurality of charging slots and a plurality of wireless devices coupled to and powered by a plurality of batteries. The host machine is adapted to communicate with the plurality of wireless devices through a plurality of wireless links to monitor the plurality of batteries coupled to the wireless devices. According to another embodiment, an electronic device is disclosed. The electronic device is adapted to couple with at least a rechargeable battery and to negotiate with the rechargeable battery for an agreed range of power parameters. The electronic device is further adapted to accept power from and to provide power to the rechargeable battery at the agreed range of power parameters.

08-01-2013

20130196659

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR POWER SAVING IN DISCONTINUOUS RECEPTION - ADAPTIVE NEIGHBOR CELL SEARCH DURATION - Methods and apparatus for adaptively adjusting temporal parameters (e.g., neighbor cell search durations). In one embodiment, neighbor cell search durations during discontinuous reception are based on a physical channel metric indicating signal strength and quality (e.g. Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), Reference Signal Receive Quality (RSRQ), etc.) of a cell. In a second embodiment, neighbor cell search durations are based on a multitude of physical layer metrics from one or more cells. In one variant, the multitude of physical layer metrics may include signal strength and quality metrics from the serving base station as well as signal strength and quality indicators from neighbor cells derived from the cells respective synchronization sequences.

08-01-2013

20130196674

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ENHANCED SCRAMBLING SEQUENCES - Methods and apparatus for identification of macro-cells and subordinate transmission nodes. In one embodiment, the methods and apparatus are configured for use within a long term evolution (LTE/LTE-A) network, and include a scrambling technique which can facilitate advanced capabilities in which the subordinate nodes possess unique cell identities from the macro-cell. The use of unique scrambling sequences allows subordinate node switching and other advanced multi-antenna techniques in heterogeneous networks. The disclosed methods and apparatus further allow for distinction and detection of signals transmitted from low-power RRHs, femto-cells, etc. and advantageously achieve greater interference randomization gain.

08-01-2013

20130196686

Selective Location Determination - Methods, program products, and systems for selective location determination are described. A mobile device can determine a location of the mobile device using various techniques. When there is a conflict between the locations determined using different techniques, the mobile device can select a most trustworthy location from the locations, and designate the most trustworthy location as a current location of the mobile device. The mobile device can determine a first location of the mobile device (e.g., a coarse location) using a cell identifier (cell ID) of a cellular network. The mobile device can determine a second location of the mobile device (e.g., a fine location) using one or more media access control (MAC) addresses of a WLAN. The first location and second location can be associated with confidence values that can indicate trustworthiness of the first location and second location.

08-01-2013

20130196692

CONTEXT-BASED REVERSE GEOCODING - In general, in one aspect, a mobile device can perform reverse geocoding based on context, in addition to latitude and longitude coordinates. The reverse geocoding can be used to determine in which geofence among multiple geofences the mobile device is located. Thus, the mobile device can be associated with a street address, a postal code, a named land feature, or a commercial, cultural, or political entity associated with the geofence. The context can include a pattern of movement, as well as an accuracy of the latitude and longitude coordinates. Information in the context can be compared to selection criteria of the geofence. A geofence having selection criteria that match the context the best can be selected.

08-01-2013

20130198172

User to User Recommender - Disclosed are embodiments of systems and methods for recommending relevant users to other users in a user community. In one implementation of such a method, two different sets of data are considered: a) music (or other items) that users have been listening to (or otherwise engaging), and b) music (or other items) recommendations that users have been given. In some embodiments, pre-computation methods allow the system to efficiently compare item sets and recommended item sets among the users in the community. Such comparisons may also comprise metrics that the system can use to figure out which users should be recommended for a given target user.

08-01-2013

20130198233

INTEGRATED REPOSITORY OF STRUCTURED AND UNSTRUCTURED DATA - Methods, program products, and systems implementing integrated repository of structured and unstructured data are disclosed. An integrated environment is provided for accessing, structured data (e.g., data of a relational database) and unstructured data (e.g., data stored in a text or binary file), including creating, managing, modifying, and searching the structured data and unstructured data. The integrated environment can include an integrated user interface, a set of commands and application programming interface (API), and storage for a relational database and a document repository. The integrated environment can include a database abstraction layer that allows database operations on both the structured data and the unstructured data.

08-01-2013

20130198573

EVENT LOGGING AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS SYSTEM FOR APPLICATIONS - An event logging and analysis mechanism which creates an event object for event of an application to be logged. The event logging mechanism logs into the event object the start time, end time and other information regarding the event. The analysis of the collected event objects may include hierarchical and contextual grouping as well as aggregation of events considered to be identical. The mechanism operates independent of the application whose events it logs and can be turned on and off independently. A user may define the levels of hierarchy and contexts upon which to analyze the event objects.

08-01-2013

20130198684

VISUAL MANIPULATION OF DATABASE SCHEMA - Methods, program products, and systems for visual manipulation of database schema are disclosed. In general, in one aspect, a system can display a schema view and a data view in graphic representation in an integrated GUI on a display device. The system can display a schema in the schema view, and one or more data records in the data view. The system can receive a touch input from the display device in the schema view, or the data view, or both. In response to the touch input, the system can modify the schema, or the data records, or both. The system can update the schema view and data view substantially simultaneously to reflect the modification in the schema or data records.

08-01-2013

20130200726

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING PROTECTION CIRCUITRY TO SELECTIVELY HANDLE MULTIPLE CABLE-TYPES THROUGH THE SAME PORT - This is generally directed to providing protection circuitry to selectively handle power-providing cables and headset cables that can couple to the same port of an electronic device. In some embodiments, the device can include a Headset Rx chip to communicate with the headset cable and a Power Rx chip to communicate with the power-providing cable. As the Headset Rx chip and the Power Rx chip can be coupled to the same contact of the device's port, these chips may prevent one another from operating correctly or may damage one another. Accordingly, in some embodiments, it can be determined whether a headset cable or a power-providing cable is coupled to the device. When a headset cable is coupled to the device, the protection circuitry can disconnect the Power Rx chip. Similarly, when a power-providing cable is coupled to the device, the protection circuitry can disconnect the Headset Rx chip.

08-08-2013

20130201010

Tactile Feedback in an Electronic Device - An electronic device for providing tactile feedback is provided. The electronic device may provide tactile feedback using any suitable approach, including for example vibration, heat, electrical, visual, or any other type of feedback. The electronic device may provide tactile feedback in response to detecting any particular status of the electronic device, receiving any particular input, or detecting any suitable communication received by the electronic device. For example, the electronic device may provide tactile feedback in response to identifying the current network of the device, the status of a particular electronic device component, or any other electronic device status; in response to receiving a particular type of communication or in response to receiving a communication from a particular contact; or in response to receiving a particular user input or to detecting a user's finger on a particular portion of the electronic device.

08-08-2013

20130201111

Keyboard with Increased Control of Backlit Keys - Methods and apparatuses are disclosed that provide increased control of backlit keys for a keyboard. Some embodiments may include controllers within the keyboard that are capable of dynamically programming illumination of the keyboard based upon interaction, where each key of the keyboard may be individually programmed in a dynamic manner. For example, a spell checking function may be executing on a computer system, and as the user types various words, the keyboard may dynamically program the illumination of keyboard controllers such that the next letter of the word being typed is illuminated by the keyboard. Also, different keyboard illumination schemes may be generated based upon mouse movements by the user and/or based upon which application is currently executing.

08-08-2013

20130201325

SHAPE REFLECTOR AND SURFACE CONTOUR MAPPING - The three dimensional surface shape of one or more layers of a reflective object is determined by examining one or more captured images reflected from the reflective object. Curved surfaces reflect a distorted image altered by the surface shape. By analyzing one or more captured images of the distorted reflected images, the shape of the surface that caused the distortion is estimated. A captured distorted image is compared to a reference undistorted image having known geometric properties. A system to capture and process such images is assembled from components including an image capture assembly such as a digital camera to capture reflected images and a positioning assembly on which to orient the components with respect to each other. Multiple surface layers of the reflective object are separately estimated using polarizations, luminance levels, chroma values or combinations thereof contained in one or more captured images.

08-08-2013

20130201534

DOCUMENT ASSEMBLY AND AUTOMATED CONTEXTUAL FORM GENERATION - This disclosure describes systems, methods, and computer program products for displaying one or more pages of a first document in a first region on a user interface; displaying thumbnail images of the one or more pages of the first document in a second region on the user interface; receiving user input for inserting one or more pages from a non-digitized second document into the first document; and in response to the user input, digitizing the one or more pages of the non-digitized second document using a document scanning device, and inserting the one or more pages of the digitized second document into the first document, wherein the inserted pages are displayed as part of the first document on the user interface.

Location-Based Methods, Systems, and Program Products For Performing An Action At A User Device. - Methods, program products, and systems for location-based reminders are disclosed. A first user device can receive an input specifying that a reminder be presented at a given location. The first user device can provide a reminder request, including type and content of the reminder and the location, to a server computer for pushing to one or more user devices. A second user device, upon receiving the reminder request, can determine a device location of the second user device. If the given location matches the device location, the second user device can present the reminder in a user interface.

08-08-2013

20130203445

Beacon-Based Geofencing - A mobile device can monitor a current location using a multi-tier approach. A baseband subsystem can monitor a coarse location of the mobile device using various course location parameters, such as a mobile country code (MCC), a location area code (LAC), or a cell identifier (cell ID), as the mobile device moves closer to the geographic region. Upon determining that the mobile device is in a cell that intersects the geographic region, the baseband subsystem can transfer the monitoring to the application subsystem. The task can be performed when the application subsystem determines that the mobile device is currently located in the geographic region. A beacon network can provide more accurate estimates of mobile device location and advertise location based services available to the mobile device.

08-08-2013

20130203457

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR IMPROVING PERFORMANCE BASED ON FILTER CHARACTERISTICS - Methods and apparatus for improving operational and/or cost performance based on filter characteristics. Existing schemes for measuring filter performance are based on a worst case filter performance across a range of frequencies and temperature. Filter performance can be more accurately characterized over one or more frequency ranges. In one exemplary embodiment the frequency is characterized according to a functional (e.g., linear-average) metric. By providing more accurate representation of the reception/transmission filter performance, both network and device optimizations can aggressively manage available power and handle smaller (tighter) margins.

08-08-2013

20130204902

Enhanced B-Trees with Record Merging - In some implementations, a B+tree (b plus tree) can provide concurrent access to data while modifying nodes of the B+tree. In some implementations, a top-down B+tree can be provided where nodes of the B+tree can be proactively merged, rebalanced and split to prevent recursive operations moving up the B+tree. In some implementations, node (or page) record data can be merged to consolidate record entries within nodes of the B+tree while only locking 1-3 nodes of the tree at the same time. In some implementations, record data can be merged across multiple nodes of the B+tree. In some implementations, ranges of data can be removed from the tree while only locking 1-3 nodes of the tree at the same time. In some implementations, range of data can be replaced with new data while only locking 1-3 nodes of the tree at the same time.

08-08-2013

20130204925

Methods And Systems For Fast Account Setup - Methods and systems are provided for collecting, storing, and transmitting account information in a matchable form, and for using this information to quickly set up accounts. Account information is maintained and shared between one or more client devices and an intermediate server. Account information can be reconciled locally to determine whether to add or enable an active account or an account proxy to a client device. Account proxies can be quickly enabled by a single user action. The methods and systems allow enabled accounts and account proxies to be removed from a first client device without propagating the deletion to a second client device.

08-08-2013

20130205137

ZERO-KNOWLEDGE BASED AUTHENTICATION METHOD, SYSTEM, AND APPARATUS - In the fields of data security and system reliability and qualification, this disclosure is of a method, system and apparatus for verifying or authenticating a device to a host using a zero-knowledge based authentication technique which includes a keyed message authentication code such as an HMAC or keyed cipher function and which operates on secret information shared between the host and the device. This is useful both for security purposes and also to make sure that a device such as a computer peripheral or accessory or component is qualified to be interoperable with the host.

08-08-2013

20130205194

NAVIGATING AMONG CONTENT ITEMS IN A BROWSER USING AN ARRAY MODE - In any context where a user can view multiple different content items, switching among content items is provided using an array mode. In a full-frame mode, one content item is visible and active, but other content items may also be open. In response to user input the display can be switched to an array mode, in which all of the content items are visible in a scrollable array. Selecting a content item in array mode can result in the display returning to the full-frame mode, with the selected content item becoming visible and active. Smoothly animated transitions between the full-frame and array modes and a gesture-based interface for controlling the transitions can also be provided.

08-08-2013

20130205219

SHARING SERVICES - Apparatuses and methods relating to content sharing are described. In one embodiment, a match between content type and one or more content services determine what content sharing services are displayed. In one embodiment, content sharing is accessible to all applications in an operating system.

08-08-2013

20130205244

GESTURE-BASED NAVIGATION AMONG CONTENT ITEMS - In any context where a user can view multiple different content items, switching among content items is provided using an array mode. In a full-frame mode, one content item is visible and active, but other content items may also be open. In response to user input the display can be switched to an array mode, in which all of the content items are visible in a scrollable array. Selecting a content item in array mode can result in the display returning to the full-frame mode, with the selected content item becoming visible and active. Smoothly animated transitions between the full-frame and array modes and a gesture-based interface for controlling the transitions can also be provided.

08-08-2013

20130205285

METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR AUTOMATIC TYPE CHECKING VIA POISONED POINTERS - A method and an apparatus that modify pointer values pointing to typed data with type information are described. The type information can be automatically checked against the typed data leveraging hardware based safety check mechanisms when performing memory access operations to the typed data via the modified pointer values. As a result, hardware built in logic can be used for a broad class of programming language safety check when executing software codes using modified pointers that are subject to the safety check without executing compare and branch instructions in the software codes.

08-08-2013

20130205286

RUNTIME OPTIMIZATION USING META DATA FOR DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES - A method and an apparatus that optimize operations for a key among a collection of key indexed data structures using meta data describing properties of the key with respect to the collection of data structures are described. The meta data may correspond to a cache dynamically updated to indicate invariants which are true for the key in a current state of the collection of data structures. Expensive calculations to search through the collection of data structures for the key may be avoided. For example, costly lookup operations over a collection of data structures may not be required at all if a key is known to always (or to never) reference certain specific values, or for these values to have certain meta-properties, in any of the collection of data structure globally throughout a system at a current state.

08-08-2013

20130205362

CENTRALIZED OPERATION MANAGEMENT - A novel security framework that is part of an operating system of a device is provided. The framework includes a security assessor that performs security policy assessments for different operations that need to be performed with respect to an application executing on the device. Examples of such operations include the installation of the application, execution of the application, and the opening of content files (e.g., opening of documents) by the application.

08-08-2013

20130205363

CENTRALIZED OPERATION MANAGEMENT - A novel security framework that is part of an operating system of a device is provided. The framework includes a security assessor that performs security policy assessments for different operations that need to be performed with respect to an application executing on the device. Examples of such operations include the installation of the application, execution of the application, and the opening of content files (e.g., opening of documents) by the application.

08-08-2013

20130205364

CENTRALIZED OPERATION MANAGEMENT - A novel security framework that is part of an operating system of a device is provided. The framework includes a security assessor that performs security policy assessments for different operations that need to be performed with respect to an application executing on the device. Examples of such operations include the installation of the application, execution of the application, and the opening of content files (e.g., opening of documents) by the application.

08-08-2013

20130205390

NETWORK ASSISTED FRAUD DETECTION APPARATUS AND METHODS - Methods and apparatus for detecting fraudulent device operation. In one exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a device is issued a user access control client that is uniquely associated with a shared secret that is securely stored within the network and the access control client. Subsequent efforts to activate or deactivate the access control client require verification of the shared secret. Each change in state includes a change to the shared secret. Consequently, requests for a change to state which do not have the proper shared secret will be disregarded, and/or flagged as fraudulent.